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THE 

LABORING  CLASSES 

OF 

ENGLAND, 

ESPECIALLY     THOSE    CONCERNED     IN 

AGRICULTURE  AND  MANUFACTURES; 

IN    A    SERIES    OF    LETTERS. 
By  an  Englishman. 


31  \)okt  from  tt)e  fattoxxtB, 

A  POEM,  IN  SERIOUS  VERSE. 


SECOND     EDITION. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  PUTNAM,  81  CORNHILL. 

AND  SOLD  BY  THE  AUTHOR, 
11  Mount  Vernon  Avenue. 

1848. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1847, 

BY  JOHN  PUTNAM, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  Massachusetts. 


CONTENTS 


LETTER  I. 
Introduction,        .... 


LETTER  II. 

Incidents  in  the  Life  of  the  Author,  ...       13 

LETTER  III. 

General  Condition  of  the  Laboring  Classes,       .        .      26 

LETTER  IV. 

Agricultural  Laborers  of  Wilts,  Dorset,  Devon,  and 

Somerset, 34 

LETTER  V. 

Agricultural  Laborers  of  Kent,  Surrey,  and  Sussex,      39 

LETTER  VI. 
Ignorance  and  Superstition  in  Kent,    ....      44 

LETTER  VII. 

Agricultural  Laborers  of  Suffolk,  Norfolk,  Lincoln, 

Yorkshire,  and  Northumberland,  ....       52 

LETTER  VIII. 

The  English  Factory  System — its  Early  History,    .      60 


M684r5fta 


IV  CONTENTS. 

LETTER  IX. 
History  of  an  Orphan  Boy, 65 

LETTER  X. 
The  Lace-Makers  of  Nottingham,        ....       84 

LETTER  XL 
Flax  Spinners, 88 

LETTER  XII. 

A  Factory  conducted  on  Christian  Principles,  .        .      94 

LETTER  XIII. 
The  Contrast, .100 

LETTER  XIV. 
Condition  of  Female  Operatives,  ....     105 

LETTER  XV. 
Value  of  Human  Life  in  English  Factories,        .        .111 

LETTER  XVI. 

Statistical  Facts — Increase  of  Machinery — Ditto  of 
Individual  Labor,  and  of  early  Superannuation 
of  Operatives, 128 

LETTER  XVII. 

Wages,  Strikes,  and  Turn-outs  for  Wages — Means 
used  by  the  manufacturers  to  prevent  them — 
Ten-hour  System — Conclusion,     ....     128 

A  Voice  from  the  Factories — A  Poem,         .        .        .     149 


THE 


LABORING  CLASSES  OF  ENGLAND. 


LETTER  I 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  offering  the  following  work  to  the  public,  I  have 
been  actuated  by  a  desire  to  diffuse  as  widely  as  possible 
the  information  it  contains;  believing  it  will  be  interesting 
and  instructive  to  every  well-wisher  of  the  human  race. 

I  have  been  led  to  publish  the  following  facts,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  curiosity  manifested  by  almost  every  per- 
son with  whom  I  have  become  acquainted  in  America,  to 
know  my  history,  &c.  So  great  has  been  the  desire  to 
question  me  upon  this  subject,  that  I  have  felt  it,  some- 
times, to  be  my  duty  to  refuse  to  give  any  information; 
my  own  feelings  requiring  me  to  forget,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  injuries  of  former  years.  Whenever  I  feel  my  heart 
beat  quicker,  occasioned  by  a  retrospective  view  of  my 
sufferings,  my  peace  of  mind  demands  that  I  should  in- 
stantly cry,  "  peace,  be  still."  I  believe,  that  had  I  fall- 
en from  some  distant  planet  in  the  Solar  system,  the  de- 
sire to  know  my  history,  and  that  of  my  species,  could 
not  have  been  greater.  A  single  glance  at  my  person, 
1* 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

as  I  walk  along,  the  street,  or  stand  in  the  presence  of 
any  one,  is  sufficient  to  awaken  this  curiosity  in  a  country 
like  America,  where  no  such  cripples  are  made  by  hard 
labor;  but  in  England,  where  they  are  to  be  met  in  al- 
most every  street,  it  is  very  different.  In  order,  there- 
fore, to  gratify  this  laudable  curiosity,  and  spare  my 
own  feelings,  publishing  became  necessary. 

It  may  be  asked  how  I  gained  the  whole  of  my  informa- 
tion upon  this  subject.  To  this  I  would  answer,  my  situa- 
tion has  been  in  many  respects  peculiar.  For  twenty-five 
years  of  my  short  life,  I  have  been  actively  engaged  as  an 
*•  operative  in  the  English  factories.  I  am  not  aware  that 
any  one  else  who  has  published  upon  the  factory  system 
can  make  a  similar  assertion.  I  have  not  only  toiled, 
but  have  been  a  sufferer  from  protracted  mill  labor  to  a 
painful  extent.  My  experience,  therefore,  of  the  factory 
system  has  been  dear-bought  experience.  I  can  speak 
feelingly,  and  I  trust  temperately.  I  have  endeavored 
to  avoid  to  the  uttermost,  every  unguarded  expression, 
every  word  which  it  would  not  become  an  humble  opera- 
tive to  use;  and  I  can  add  with  truth,  that  I  am  not  con- 
scious of  one  unkindly  or  resentful  feeling  towards  any 
human  being. 

In  addition  to  the  experience  I  have  had  in  factories,  I 
was  employed  in  part  of  the  years  1841  and  1342,  by  a 
benevolent  Nobleman  in  London  to  assist  him  in  his  laud- 
able endeavors  to  benefit  the  laboring  classes.  It  may 
be  interesting  to  the  American  reader  to  know,  that  my 
salary  under  this  Nobleman  was  forty-five  shillings  per 
week,  (about  $11,)  and  coach  hire,  while  travelling,  and 
twenty  shillings  per  week,  ($5,)  while  stationary  in  Lon- 
don. Under  this  engagement  I  travelled  through  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  Lancashire,  Cheshire  and 
Derbyshire;  and  being  well  supplied  with  letters  of  intro- 
duction, I  had  ample  opportunities  of  conversing  with  all 


INTRODUCTION.  7 

parties  likely  to  afford  me  any  information  on  the  subject 
of  factory  life.  In  particular,  I  waited  upon  Clergymen 
of  various  denominations,  Manufacturers,  Surgeons,  In- 
spectors and  Overlookers.  I  had  also  opportunities  of 
studying  the  habits  and  manners  of  the  operatives,  in  the 
mills,  cottages,  places  of  amusement,  public  houses,  &c, 
and  of  investigating  the  various  causes  of  decrepitude, 
mutilation  or  death; — whether  arising  from  long  hours  of 
labor,  or  accidents  by  machinery. 

The  facts  contained  in  this  volume  have  been  carefully 
inquired  into  on  the  spot,  and  in  many  cases  taken  from 
the  parties  themselves,  and  corroborated  by  others  not 
interested  in  the  matter.  I  have  no  doubt  the  reader  will 
be  interested  in  perusing  the  following  letters,  which, 
with  many  others,  I  received  from  this  nobleman  while 
in  his  service. 

[No.  l.] 

Oct.  12,  1841. 

Dear .     You  have  discharged  your  commission  admirably, 

and  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  trouble  you  take,  and  the 
accuracy  with  which  you  furnish  details. 

I  trust  you  will  derive  from  your  present  duty  that  real  satis- 
faction, which  is  the  portion  of  those  who  labor,  in  God's  name, 
for  the  welfare  of  their  fellow  creatures.  I  commit  you  most 
heartily  to  His  care,  and  wish  you  every  happiness  in  this  world, 
and  in  that  which  is  to  come. 

Faithfully  yours,  A . 

[No.  2.] 

St.  G House,  Nov.  24,  1841. 

Bear .     So  far  from  thinking  that  you  travel  beyond  your 

duty,  when  you  write  to  me  your  opinions  on  all  matters  affecting 
the  moral  condition  of  the  working  classes,  I  am  exceedingly 
pleased  with  your  remarks  ;  I  altogether  concur  in  them,  and  re- 
quest you  to  continue  your  observations.     I  have  always  been 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

convinced  that  a  reduction  in  the  hours  of  labor  is  only  a  prelim- 
inary to  the  measures  we  must  introduce  for  the  benefit  of  the 
working  classes  ;  but  it  is  an  indispensable  preliminary.  We 
must  first  settle  this  just  principle,  and  then  go  on,  by  God's  bles- 
sing, to  draw  long  advantages  from  it.  Limited  as  I  am  in  Par- 
liament, and  out  of  it,  I  cannot  undertake  more  than  one  thing  at 
a  time  ;  but  I  think  of  a  great  many,  and  hope  to  be  able  here- 
after to  effect  a  few  of  them. 

Your  labors  have  been  very  serviceable.  It  must  be  a  pleasure 
to  you,  to  find  yourself  by  God's  mercy,  in  a  way  to  be  of  use  to 
your  fellow  sufferers,  to  make  at  least  an  ingenuous  effect.  I 
hope  that  your  remaining  days  may  be  so  assured  to  you  in  com- 
fort, that  you  may  have  leisure  and  means  to  pursue  your  plans 
for  the  welfare  of  the  operatives. 

Your  faithful  servant,  A . 

[No.  3.] 

March  31,  1842. 

.     Pray  go  to  the  house    of  Mrs.  Torvey,  41   A 1 

Street,  Regent's  Park. 

You  will  there  see  a  poor  girl  whose  arm  has  been  torn  off  by 
a  wheel  in  a  silk  mill.  Pray  talk  to  her,  and  tell  me  what  you 
think  of  the  case. 

You  will  be  able  to  judge  whether  I  can  assist  her  by  giving 
her  a  false  hand,  such  as  you  have. 

Your  humble  servant,  A . 

My  "  plans  "  alluded  to  in  letter  No.  2,  were  chiefly 
the  establishment  of  a  self-acting  asylum  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  London,  for  the  reception  of  the  thousands  of 
destitute  factory  cripples,  in  which  they  might  be  provi- 
ded with  the  means  of  spending  the  remainder  of  their 
days  in  comfort,  and  in  preparing  for  another  and  a  bet- 
ter world.  I  had  also  formed  some  plans  for  preventing, 
as  far  as  human  means  could  prevent,  the  making  of 
cripples  in  future.  Although  I  did  not  succeed  in  carry- 
ing out  these  desirable  objects,  it  was  gratifying  for  me 


INTRODUCTION.  9 

to  know  that  "  I  had  discharged  my  commission  admira- 
bly," and  that  my  "  labors  had  been  very  serviceable." 

My  statements  respecting  agricultural  laborers,  have 
been  chiefly  derived  from  the  reports  of  Commissioners 
laid  before  Parliament ;  and  which  were  borne  out  by  my 
own  observation  and  experience. 

In  a  country  like  America,  where  all  men,  in  the  eye  of 
the  law,  are  born  equal,  it  is  extremely  difficult  for  the 
majority  of  readers  to  comprehend  the  real  position  of  the 
laboring  classes,  in  countries  under  a  monarchical  form 
of  government.  It  is,  in  the  first  place,  difficult  to  under- 
stand what  is  meant  by  "  classes."  For  the  information 
of  such  readers,  it  may  be  proper  to  say  a  few  words 
upon  this  subject. 

English  society  may  be  conveniently  divided  into  eight 
classes: 

1st.  The  Royal  Family. — Under  this  general  term  are 
comprehended  all  who  are  of  the  blood  royal. 

2d.  The  Nobility. — In  this  class  we  have  Archbish- 
ops, Dukes,  Marquisses,  Earls,  Viscounts,  Bishops, 
Barons,  &c.  They  are  commonly  denominated  "the 
upper  ten  thousand." 

3d.  The  Millionaires,  commonly  called  "  the  vulgar 
rich."  This  class  comprehends  a  great  number  of  indi- 
viduals who  have  amassed  immense  wealth  by  manufac- 
tures, commerce,  railroad  speculations,  &c. 

4th.  This  class  is  composed  of  the  clergy,  professional 
gentlemen,  merchants,  tradesmen,  &c.  The  gentlemen 
composing  this  class,  with  the  exception  of  the  humbler 
order  of  the  clergy  of  all  denominations,  are  well  remu- 
nerated for  their  services,  perhaps  better  than  a  similar 
class  in  any  other  country  on  the  globe. 

5th.  The  higher  order  of  Mechanics,  known  as 
<(  skilled  laborers,"  (from  their  being  obliged  to  pay 
large  fees,  and  to  serve  an  apprenticeship  of  seven  years 


10  INTRODUCTION. 

to  the  trade  which  they  follow,)  shopkeepers,  &c,  com- 
pose this  class.  Generally  speaking,  they  are  an  indus- 
trious and  intelligent  class,  and  are  sufficiently  remuner- 
ated for  their  services  to  enable  them  to  bring  up  their 
families  in  a  respectable  manner,  and  to  lay  by  some- 
thing for  the  comforts  of  old  age. 

6th.  This  class  comprehends  a  great  number  of  indi- 
viduals who  get  their  living  by  the  "sweat  of  their 
brow,"  but  who  are  not  required  to  serve  seven  years  at 
their  trade  or  calling.  Manufacturing,  agricultural,  and 
many  other  kinds  of  laborers}  come  under  this  head. 
This  class  is  a  hard-working,  ill-paid,  and  ill-used  set  of 
human  beings;  frequently  dying  with  every  symptom  of 
premature  decay,  at  from  35  to  50  years  of  age. 

Each  individual  is  compelled  to  pay  taxes  to  the  gov- 
ernment, the  taxes  being  levied  upon  their  provisions, 
clothes,  furniture,  &c.  They  are  also  compelled  to  obey 
upwards  of  1500  laws,  without  having  a  voice  in  making 
or  amending  one.  Their  appeals  to  Parliament  by  peti- 
tion, are  scarcely  ever  listened  to,  unless  seconded  by 
some  of  the  ''  privileged  "  classes.  It  is  to  this  class  my 
observations  in  this  work  principally  apply. 

7th.  Paupers.  Of  this  class  there  is  known  to  be  in 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  4,000,000  of  individuals,  of 
all  ages  and  both  sexes.  It  may  be  said  of  them,  that 
they  have  lost  all  but  their  integrity,  and  that  there  is  lit- 
tle hope  left  for  them,  of  bettering  their  condition  in  this 
world. 

8th.  This  is  a  class  who  have  lost  what  the  class 
above  still  retain,  their  honor,  integrity,  good  names; 
who  have  no  recognized  means  of  existence,  but  live  by 
their  wits  upon  the  property  of  others.  Thieves,  gam- 
blers, prostitutes,  and  the  like,  are  of  this  class. 

The  outlines  of  these  several  classes  are  broad  and 
well  denned ;  there  are,  however  some  peculiarities  com- 


INTRODUCTION.  11 

mon  to  two  or  more  classes.  Thus  if  we  couple  together 
classes  1  and  2,  we  shall  have  a  mass  of  individuals  com- 
monly known  as  the  "head;"  and  following  the  same 
rule  with  7  and  8,  we  get  what  is  called  the  "tail  "  of 
society. 

The  first  four  may  be  called  "  privileged  classes;" 
and  the  last  four  non-privileged  classes.  The  first  five  as 
law-making  classes,  the  last  three  as  classes  having  no- 
thing to  do  with  the  laws  but  to  obey,  to  do,  and  to  suffer 
as  others  may  direct. 

It  is  a  matter  of  some  doubt  with  the  writer,  whether 
there  are  to  be  found  in  the  world  the  same  number 
of  people  enjoying  equal  privileges,  as  the  first  four 
classes;  or  a  portion  of  any  community  enduring  priva- 
tions and  sufferings  such  as  are  patiently  endured  by  the 
last  four. 

There  is  something  which  makes  some  of  these  classes 
altract  and  repel  each  other.  Thus  the  poorer  portion  of 
class  2,  have  a  great  affinity  for  class  3,  and  many  of 
class  3  having  got  all  but  a  "  title,"  reciprocate  this  sym- 
pathy, and  marriage  is  the  consequence.  Repulsion 
takes  place  when  any  members  of  the  "head"  are 
brought  into  contact  with  a  member  of  the  "tail." 

The  ascent  in  these  classes  is  attended  with  difficulty 
and  danger  to  the  adventurous  individual  who  attempts  it; 
the  descent  is  accomplished  much  easier. 

I  am  a  native  of  class  4,  and  was  reduced  in  childhood  I 
to  class  6.      I  rose  again  after  I  had  quitted  the  factories  ' 
to  my  native   element  4;   after  I  had  lost  my  arm  I  again    « 
sunk  to  6,  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  I   prevented 
myself  falling  to  7. 

With  respect  to  the  beautiful  poem,  I  may  say,  that  I 
do  not  know  the  name  of  the  author.  It  appears,  it  was 
printed  for  private  circulation  among  the  upper  classes; 


12  INTRODUCTION. 

a  copy  of  it  was  put  into  my  hand  by  the  late  celebrated 
publisher,  Mr.  Murray,  of  Albemarle  Street,  London. 

In  perusing  the  following  pages,  it  will  be  necessary 
that  the  reader  should  bear  in  mind,  that  the  author  is  a 
working  man,  that  he  never  went  to  school,  that  he  is 
here  describing  things  which  he  has  witnessed  in  every- 
day life,  and  that  his  observations  are  confined  to  that 
portion  of  society  in  which  he  has  lived  and  moved. 

With  these  preliminary  remarks,  I  leave  the  work  to 
the  candid  reader,  and  to  God's  blessing,  believing  that 
it  does  not  contain  a  single  sentence  which  on  my  death- 
bed I  could  wish  to  erase. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


P.  S.  Should  any  lady  or  gentleman  feel  desirous  of 
seeing  for  themselves  the  horrors  of  the  English  factory 
system,  as  it  is  stamped  on  my  person,  a  letter  to  my  ad- 
dress, post  paid,  will  be  attended  to. 

No.  8  Mount  Vernon  Avenue. 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  13 


LETTER  II. 

INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  the  author's 
mother,  who  we  shall  call  the  widow  Graham,  had  been 
left  to  struggle  with  the  ills  of  life,  and  to  feel,  together 
with  her  offspring,  the  painful  realities  of  want  and  suf- 
fering; but  too  frequently  the  lot  of  the  widow  and  the  fa- 
therless. 

For  a  time  she  could  not  well  understand  the  position 
in  which  she  was  placed;  but  the  pressing  calls  of  her 
family,  gradually  brought  her  to  a  sense  of  her  real  con- 
dition. Being  descended  from  an  ancient  Scottish  fam- 
ily, and  being  still  strong  and  active,  she  was  not  the 
person  to  shrink  from  difficulties.  It  is  true  the  task  of 
bringing  up  four  children,  the  oldest  of  whom  was  but  9, 
and  the  youngest  4  years  of  age,  by  her  own  endeav- 
ors, was  no  easy  one.  It  is  also  true  there  was  a  way  by 
which  she  could  be  lightened  of  her  burden,  viz:  by  pla- 
cing her  children  in  the  workhouse;  but  this  was  repug- 
nant to  her  feelings.  Although  she  had  seen  better  days, 
it  must  not  be  supposed  that  this  repugnance  arose  from 
any  family  pride,  or  from  any  improper  feelings  with  re- 
spect to  her  situation.  She  was  duly  resigned  to  her 
condition,  and  fully  determined  to  discharge  her  duty  to 
the  utmost  of  her  power. 

To  those  persons  who  are  acquainted  with  the  manner 
in  which  the  parish  children  in  England  were  treated  in 
the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  how  they  were 
drafted  off  by  boat  loads  into  the  factory,  it  will  not  be 
surprising  that  she  refused  to  listen  to  all  advice  from 
friends  to  seek  relief  in  that  way.     It  was  in  vain  they 


14  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

represented  the  impossibility  of  bringing  up  her  family 
without  assistance;  she  had  formed  her  plans  not  to  part 
from  her  children  under  any  circumstances. 

About  this  time  the  large  manufacturers  of  Lancashire, 
and  Yorkshire,  having  nearly  worked  up  all  the  parish 
children  from  London,  Birmingham,  and  other  large 
towns,  sent  their  agents  into  the  small  towns  and  villages 
around  to  pick  up  any  poor  families  whom  they  might 
meet  with.  An  engagement  with  these  agents  would  at 
once  have  relieved  widow  Graham  of  three  of  the  children; 
but  this  was  nearly  the  same  thing  as  sending  them  to  the 
work-house,  and  like  the  other  was  abandoned. 

What  was  to  be  done  ?  Work  the  children  must,  at 
something;  for  one  pair  of  hands,  however  industriously 
employed,  could  not  maintain  five  persons,  besides  paying 
house  rent,  fire  and  taxes.  Accordingly  she  agreed  to 
send  the  two  oldest  girls  to  a  factory  in  the  neighborhood 
on  trial,  then  her  favorite  little  boy  Jemmy,  and  lastly 
her  youngest  girl. 

They  all  continued  to  work  in  factories  many  years; 
the  result  was  the  oldest  girl  met  an  untimely  death,  the 
youngest  was  taken  away  to  save  her  from  the  same  fate, 
and  the  two  others  became  cripples  for  life. 

But  it  is  to  the  boy  Jemmy  that  the  reader's  attention 
is  called. 

When  first  he  was  sent  to  the  factories,  being  but  5 
years  and  9  months  old,  he  was  too  short  to  reach  the 
top  of  the  frame  at  which  he  was  set  to  work,  and  a  block 
of  wood  was  given  him  to  stand  on,  in  order  that  he 
might  be  enabled  to  get  to  his  work  properly.  The  hours 
which  he  was  obliged  to  work  were  from  6  o'clock  in  the 
morning  till  half  past  7  in  the  evening;  with  one  hour 
and  a  half  for  meals,  with  12  working  hours  for  5  days, 
and  9  on  Saturday.  For  this  employment  he  received  24 
cents  the  first  week,    and  36  cents  the  second,  at  which 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  15 

rate  he   continued   for  several  months,  when  his  wages 
were  advanced  to  48  cents  per  week. 

The  little  fellow  could  not  at  this  early  period  of  his 
life  be  supposed  to  be  worth  much  as  a  laborer,  and 
probably  the  small  amount  here  mentioned  was  the  full 
value  of  his  services;  be  this  as  it  may,  the  punishment 
to  him  arising  from  standing  so  many  hours  without  be- 
ing permitted  to  sit  down  was  very  severe,  and  ought 
never  to  be  required  of  children  for  such  a  pittance,  or 
in  short,  under  any  circumstances.  He  continued  to  in- 
crease in  his  qualifications  and  was  several  times  ad- 
vanced, till  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  having  then  been 
8  years  in  the  factories,  he  was  capable  of  earning  72 
cents  per  week,  which  was  a  little  more  than  the  average 
for  children  of  his  age.  During  these  8  years  he  went 
through  a  series  of  uninterrupted,  unmitigated  suffering, 
such  as  very  rarely  falls  to  the  lot  of  mortals  so  early  in 
life,  except  to  those  situated  as  he  was,  and  such  as  he 
could  not  have  endured  had  he  not  been  strong  and  of  a 
good  constitution. 

At  the  age  of  8  or  9,  his  limbs  began  to  show  symp- 
toms of  giving  way,  under  the  excessive  fatigue  to  which 
he  was  subjected.  He  constantly  complained  of  weari- 
ness, pains  in  the  knees  and  ancles,  and  was  ever  ready 
to  sit  himself  down  in  the  factory,  on  the  road,  or  in  al- 
most any  place,  whenever  and  wherever  an  opportunity 
presented  itself,  even  for  half  a  minute. 

Every  precaution  was  taken  that  the  humble  means  of 
his  widowed  mother  would  permit,  to  prevent  her  favorite, 
her  only  boy,  from  being  made  a  cripple;  but  in  vain. 
Oils,  flannel  bandages,  strengthening  plasters  and  mix- 
tures, were  incessantly  applied;  and  every  thing  but  the 
right  one,  (viz.  taking  him  from  the  work,)  were  one  by 
one  tried,  rejected,  and  abandoned.  In  defiance  of  all 
these  remedies,  he  became  from  excessive   labor,  a  con- 


16  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

firmed  cripple  for  life.  His  knees  gave  way  and  gradu- 
ally sunk  inwards  till  they  touched  each  other,  thus  form- 
ing a  kind  of  arch  for  the  support  of  the  body.  At  12 
years  of  age  the  easiest  position  in  which  he  could  stand, 
was  with  his  feet  about  10  or  12  inches  apart,  his  knees 
resting  as  above,  with  the  centre  of  gravity  crossing  the 
thigh  and  leg  bones  and  falling  within  the  feet. 

The  school  in  which  he  was  thus  placed  was  any  thing 
but  favorable  to  a  life  of  morality.  Under  the  same  roof 
were  more  than  100  children  and  young  persons  of  both 
sexes,  going  together  in  the  morning,  associating  with 
each  other  through  the  day,  returning  again  in  the  eve- 
ning, with  no  moral  restraint  upon  their  actions,  no  ex- 
ample set  them  worthy  of  imitation.  On  the  contrary, 
low,  vulgar,  brutal  language,  swearing,  singing  immoral 
songs,  and  acts  of  gross  indecency,  were  not  only  tolera- 
ted, but  in  many  instances  actually  countenanced  and 
encouraged.  A  factory  conducted  thus  was  not  a  very 
desirable  place  to  train  up  a  child  in,  and  many  a  time 
did  it  grieve  the  heart  of  his  mother  to  hear  him,  in  an- 
swer to  her  inquiries  as  to  how  he  had  come  by  a  bruise 
or  cut  on  the  head  or  back,  tell  how  he  had  been  beat 
by  the  overlooker  or  spinner,  and  how  he  swore  he  would 
kill  him  if  he  did  not  work  faster.  Anxiously  did  she  in- 
quire of  her  friends  for  some  more  suitable  employment 
for  her  boy;  but  on  account  of  his  deformity,  which  had 
become  now  quite  conspicuous,  none  could  be  found. 

The  situation  of  Jemmy  at  14  was  truly  distressing. 
He  could  not  associate  with  the  other  boys  at  play  in  his 
leisure  moments  ;  neither  could  he  go  to  the  Sunday 
school,  as  he  had  done  in  his  younger  days;  on  the  con- 
trary, he  sought  every  opportunity  to  rest  himself,  and  to 
shrink  into  any  corner  to  screen  himself  from  the  prying 
eyes  of  the  curious  and  scornful  !  During  the  week 
days  he   frequently  counted  the   clock,    and  calculated 


Incidents  in  the  life  of  the  author.  17 

how  many  hours  he  had  still  to  remain   at  work.     His ' 
evenings  were  spent  in  rubbing  his  joints  and  preparing 
for  the  following  day;  after  which  he  retired  to  cry  him-i 
self  to  sleep,  and  pray  that  the  Lord  would  release  him' 
from  his  sufferings  before  morning. 

On  finding  himself  settled  in  the  factories,  as  it  was 
then  pretty  evident  he  could  get  no  other  employment, 
he  began  to  think  of  getting  a  little  higher  in  the  work, 
and  speaking  to  the  master  upon  the  subject,  he  got  ad- 
vanced to  a  place  where  the  labor  was  not  so  distressing, 
but  where  the  care  and  responsibility  were  greater. 

Soon  after  his  advancement  to  this  place,  Jimmy  met 
with  an  accident  which  had  very  near  been  fatal.  By 
some  means  his  coat  got  entangled  in  the  straps  of  the 
machinery,  and  finding  himself  lifted  from  the  floor,  with 
a  prospect  of  being  dashed  against  the  floor  above,  he 
gave  a  sudden  jerk,  and  the  coat  being  old  and  saturated 
with  oil,  broke  away,  and  thus  saved  his  life.  A  few 
months  after  he  had  another,  and  still  more  narrow  es- 
cape from  death.  This  was  partly  owing  to  the  want 
of  sufficient  precaution  in  boxing  off  the  machinery. 

When  about  15  years  of  age,  a  circumstance  occurred 
to  him,  which  does  not  often  fall  to  the  lot  of  factory  chil- 
dren, and  which  had  a  great  influence  on  his  future  life. 
He  happened  one  day  to  find  an  old  board  lying  useless 
in  a  corner  of  the  factory.  On  this  board,  with  a  piece 
of  chalk,  he  was  scrawling  out  as  well  as  he  was  able, 
the  initials  of  his  name,  instead  of  attending  to  his  work. 
Having  finished  the  letters,  he  was  laying  down  the 
board  and  turning  to  his  work,  when  to  his  great  sur- 
prise, he  perceived  one  of  his  masters  looking  over  his 
shoulder.  Of  course,  he  expected  a  severe  scolding  ; 
but  the  half  smile  upon  his  master's  countenance  sud- 
denly dispelled  his  fears.  This  gentleman,  who  was  a 
2* 


18  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

member  of  the  society  of  Friends,  kindly  asked  Jimmy 
several  questions  about  reading  and  writing,  and  being 
informed  that  tlie  two  letters  on  the  board  before  him, 
contained  the  sum  total  of  all  the  knowledge  the  boy  pos- 
sessed in  these  matters,  he  kindly  gave  him  2  pence  (4 
cents,)  to  purchase  a  slate  and  pencil,  pens,  ink  and  pa- 
per. This  sum  of  money  he  continued  to  allow  the  boy 
weekly  for  several  years,  always  inspecting  his  humble 
endeavors,  and  suggesting  any  improvements  which  he 
thought  necessary. 

Thus  an  opportunity  was  afforded  him,  which,  with  a 
few  presents  of  books,  was  the  means,  under  Providence, 
of  laying  the  foundation  of  a  tolerable  education,  for  a 
working  man.  This  kindness  on  the  part  of  his  master  is 
still  fresh  in  his  memory.  He  speaks  of  it  as  one  of  the 
bright  spots  in  his  checkered  life. 

With  this  encouragement,  and  impelled  by  the  activ- 
ity of  his  own  mind,  and  an  irresistible  thirst  after  know- 
ledge, he  set  himself  earnestly  to  the  acquisition  of  such 
branches  of  education  as  he  thought  might  better  his 
condition  in  after  life;  and  although  he  had  still  his  work 
to  attend,  he  soon  found  himself  in  possession  of  a  tolera- 
ble share  of  mathematics,  geography,  history,  &.c. 

Now  that  he  began  to  derive  pleasure  from  the  perusal 
of  books,  (and  in  fact,  it  was  the  only  source  of  pleasure 
he  had)  he  did  not  omit  any  opportunity  of  gratifying  this 
desire,  but  particularly  on  the  Sabbath  day.  His  usual 
custom  in  the  summer  months  was  to  take  a  book  in  one 
pocket,  and  a  crust  of  bread  in  another,  and  thus  provi- 
ded with  food  for  the  mind  and  body,  go  forth  on  a  Sun- 
day morning  to  a  retired  and  secluded  wood,  about  2 
miles  from  the  town  in  which  he  lived,  and  there  spend 
the  day  alone.  On  the  banks  of  a  rivulet  which  ran 
through  the  wood,  he  has  sat  for  hours  absorbed  in  study, 
unperceived  by  mortal  eye,  with  nothing  to  disturb  the 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  19 

solitude  of  the  place  but  the  numerous  little  songsters 
that  kept  up  a  continual  concert,  as  if  to  make  it  more 
enchanting  to  his  imagination. 

These  visits  to  his  summer  retreat  he  speaks  of  as  sea- 
sons of  real  pleasure;  they  were  also  attended  with  some 
advantages  in  point  of  health.  For  a  number  of  years 
he  had  enjoyed  but  a  delicate  state  of  health,  owing  to 
constant  confinement,  the  smells  of  the  factories,  &c; 
but  these  Sunday  excursions  got  him  a  better  appetite 
for  his  victuals,  and  he  became  more  healthy  and  strong. 

He  also  derived  considerable  pleasure  and  improve- 
ment from  the  study  of  nature,  in  watching  the  habits  of 
birds,  bees,  ants,  butterflies,  and  any  natural  curiosity 
that  came  in  his  way  ;  and  when  the  evening  began  to 
close  in  around  him,  and  compelled  him  to  return  to  the 
habitations  of  men,  he  felt  a  reluctance  to  leave  his  quiet 
and  solitary  retreat. 

On  some  occasions,  when  returning  from  his  retreat  in 
the  woods  on  a  Sunday  evening,  he  has  stood  upon  an  em- 
inence at  a  distance,  and  watched  the  gaily-attired  inhab- 
itants taking  their  evening  walk  in  the  fields  and  meadows 
around  the  town,  and  could  not  help  contrasting  their 
situation  with  his.  They  were  happy  in  themselves,  anx- 
ious to  see  and  be  seen,  and  deriving  pleasure  from  mu- 
tual friendship  and  intercourse;  he,  with  the  seeds  of 
misery  implanted  in  his  frame,  surrounded  by  circum- 
stances calculated  to  make  him  truly  unhappy,  shrinking 
from  the  face  of  men  to  a  lovely  wood,  to  brood  over  his 
sorrows  in  secret  and  in  silence.  They  were  enjoying 
the  fruits  of  their  industry ;  but  the  reward  for  his,  was 
misery,  wretchedness  and  disease. 

So  great  was  the  love  of  books  in  this  youth,  that  he 
seized  upon  all  within  the  circle  of  his  acquaintance,  no 
matter  upon  what  subject,  with  avidity.  On  one  occa- 
sion he  was  tempted  to  have   recourse  to  a  little  of  what 


20  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

the  world  calls  policy,  in  order  to  gratify  his  appetite  for 
reading,  but  which  he  knew  to  be  wrong. 

On  Saturdays,  the  mill  usually  stopped  working  at  5 
o'clock;  then  after  cleaning  himself,  he  had  a  few  hours 
to  call  his  own,  which  were  generally  spent  in  his  favor- 
ite amusement.  One  fine  Saturday  evening  in  June, 
having  provided  himself  with  a  book  from  a  circulating 
library,  he  took  a  walk  to  the  ruins  of  an  old  castle,  a 
short  distance  from  the  town,  which  had  often  been  to 
him  an  agreeable  retreat  from  the  noise  and  bustle  of  the 
factory.  For  the  loan  of  this  book  he  had  paid  two  pence, 
the  sum  his  master  allowed  him  weekly  over  and  above 
his  wages,  and  he  had  got  it  snugly  in  his  pocket,  calcu- 
lating on  the  pleasure  it  would  afford  him  during  the 
week.  It  chanced,  however,  to  be  one  of  those  thinly 
printed  volumes  with  large  margins,  and  seating  himself 
on  the  above  mentioned  ruins,  he  did  not  rise  till  he  had 
finished  it.  When  he  rose  from  his  seat  the  evening  was 
closing  in  around,  and  the  bats  and  owls  were  on  the 
wing;  but  he  had  read  his  book,  had  exhausted  his  whole 
week's  stock  of  amusement.  What  was  to  be  done  ?  To 
obtain  another  volume  in  the  usual  way  was  impossible, 
he  had  not  another  penny  in  the  world;  and  to  be  with- 
out a  book  for  a  whole  week  seemed  very  hard.  In  this 
dilemma  he  hit  upon  a  plan,  which  after  a  little  hesitation 
he  carried  into  effect.  He  took  the  volume  back  to  the 
librarian  and  requested  him  to  change  it,  telling  him  it 
did  not  suit.  His  request  was  complied  with,  and  he  was 
thus  furnished  with  amusement  for  the  week. 

When  about  the  age  of  17,  he  became  acquainted  with 
a  young  student  who  was  very  kind  in  lending  him  books, 
and  explaining  any  difficulty  he  might  be  laboring  under 
in  his  studies.  This  student  also  first  directed  his  atten- 
tion to  higher  and  nobler  objects,  got  our  youth  to  relin- 
quish in  part,  his  Sunday  excursions,  and  go  with  him 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  21 

occasionally  to  church.  He  speaks  of  these  kindnesses 
as  having  been  of  great  service  to  him,  and  recollects 
them  with  gratitude. 

To  turn  his  thoughts  from  his  pitiful  situation,  he  at- 
tended lectures  on  various  subjects,  repeated  the  simple 
experiments  at  home,  made  some  curious  models  and  draw- 
ings of  machines,  and  could  thus  contrive  to  pass  away  his 
leisure  time  pleasantly.  But  in  proportion  as  the  truths  of 
science  were  unfolded  to  his  wondering  sight,  and  the 
mists  of  ignorance  chased  from  his  mind,  new  desires 
sprung  up  which  were  before  unknown,  and  from  being 
entirely  out  of  his  reach,  made  him  occasionally  fretful 
and  unhappy. 

Being  desirous  of  turning  his  newly  acquired  learning 
to  some  account,  he  engaged  to  keep  the  books  of  a  tai- 
lor, draw  out  his  bills,  &.c.  in  the  evenings  after  his  labor 
in  the  factories  was  over,  by  which  he  earned  part  of  his 
clothing,  and  also  got  an  insight  into  the  trade,  which 
was  of  service  afterwards. 

From  the  time  our  young  friend  had  been  put  into  the 
factories,  he  had  gradually,  but  slowly  advanced  from 
one  process  to  another,  till  by  the  time  he  had  arrived  at 
the  age  of  20,  when  he  had  been  in  constant  practice 
more  than  14  years,  he  found  himself  to  be  a  person  of 
some  consequence.  He  was  then  well  acquainted  with 
the  various  processes  of  manufacturing  woollen  cloth,  and 
would  have  had  no  hesitation  to  undertake  to  make  a 
piece  of  cloth  throughout  himself.  Besides,  his  literary 
knowledge,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression,  enabled 
him  to  undertake  to  keep  the  books  of  the  factory,  which 
was  to  him  not  only  an  easier  situation,  but  a  more  profit- 
able one. 

In  all  the  advancing  stages  of  his  factory  life,  from  a 
boy  standing  on  a  wooden  block,  to  a  clerk  in  his  mas- 
ter's counting  room,  Jimmy  had  to  comply  with  the   evil 


oc) 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 


and  pernicious  practice  of  paying  footing;  that  is,  at 
every  step  a  person  takes  in  his  upward  progress,  one  or 
two  shillings  are  demanded  to  be  spent  in  drink,  by  the 
work  people,  to  which  they  contribute  a  small  sum  in 
order  to  make  up  a  jollification.  From  these  scenes,  so 
contrary  to  his  habits,  he  was  always  glad  to  retire  to  his 
books. 

On  the  introduction  of  some  improved  machinery  for 
finishing  woollen  cloth,  into  the  factory,  James  was  ap- 
pointed to  superintend  it.  This  machinery  being  of  a 
much  superior  description  to  any  previously  in  use,  it 
was  placed  in  a  room  by  itself,  and  all  communication 
with  that  room  shut  off,  except  to  the  person  attending 
the  machine.  In  this  room  he  worked  for  several  years, 
being  always  locked  in  by  himself.  One  day  as  he  was 
busily  engaged  in  his  occupation,  he  had  his  right  hand 
taken  into  the  machine  and  injured  considerably  among 
the  bones  in  the  wrist,  losing  at  the  same  time  one  finger 
end.  Five  years  afterwards  the  right  arm  had  to  be  am- 
putated, in  consequence  of  some  of  the  bones  being  in- 
jured as  is  supposed,  by  this  accident,  and  having  still  to 
continue  to  work. 

Although  he  was  not,  at  this  time,  constantly  employed 
within  the  mills,  but  had  to  attend  to  the  packing  depart- 
ment in  the  warehouse,  and  any  other  place  about  the 
works  where  he  might  be  required,  yet  still  the  effects  of 
former  years  of  factory  toil  were  on  him,  still  his  life  was 
one  of  suffering,  although  not  to  so  great  a  degree;  and 
he  had  it  now  in  his  power  to  procure  comforts  which 
were  before  unknown  to  him,  and  lived  more  like  a 
Christian  than  formerly. 

An  easy  clerk's  situation  being  now  vacant,  he  was  ad- 
vised by  some  friends  to  avail  himself  of  the  opportunity, 
and  thus  free  himself  totally  from  the  factories,  especially 
as  he  had  several  influential  friends  to  forward  his  views. 


INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  23 

He  mentioned  the  subject  to  his  masters,  who  made  such 
advantageous  offers  as  induced  him  to  remain  with  them. 

In  1834,  the  law  for  the  regulation  of  factories  in  Eng- 
land was  about  being  put  in  force.  James  Graham  being 
then  an  overlooker,  had  to  take  the  children  to  the  doc- 
tor to  be  examined,  and  get  certificates  that  they  were  of 
the  required  age.  It  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  he 
could  persuade  the  doctor  to  certify  that  they  were  9 
years  old,  although  some  of  them  were  in  their  eleventh 
year,  their  stunted,  diminutive,  and  sickly  appearance 
being  so  much  against  them. 

One  of  the  most  trying  occurrences  in  all  his  factory 
experience,  took  place  in  the  following  winter.  About  8 
months  previously  he  had  had  a  youth  of  about  17  years 
of  age  placed  under  him,  for  the  purpose  of  learning 
some  of  the  higher  branches  of  the  business.  Having 
one  day  given  this  youth  directions  what  to  do,  and  gone 
up  to  the  room  above  for  the  purpose  of  superintending 
some  other  part  of  the  works,  he  noticed  one  branch  of 
the  machinery  suddenly  stop.  On  going  to  ascertain  the 
cause,  he  met  several  persons  running  towards  him,  who 
said,  "  Tom  has  got  into  the  Gig  and  is  killed."  He  ran 
down  in  haste,  but  it  was  too  true;  he  was  strangled.  A 
great  many  bones  were  broken,  and  several  ghastly 
wounds  were  inflicted  on  his  person. 

After  his  mangled  body  was  extracted  from  the  machi- 
nery, by  unscrewing  and  taking  the  machine  in  pieces, 
it  was  laid  in  a  recess  in  the  ground  floor,  the  same  in 
which  the  accident  occurred,  to  await  a  coroner's  in- 
quest, the  works  being  all  stopped  and  the  hands  dis- 
missed. The  reader  may  imagine  the  feelings  of  Graham, 
as  he  paced  backwards  and  forwards  with  folded  arms 
and  downcast  eyes.  It  was  a  cold  winter's  evening.  He 
had  a  flickering  light  burning  beside  him.  Not  a  sound 
broke  upon  the  ear,  except  the  wind   and  rain   without, 


24  INCIDENTS    IN    THE    LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

and  the  water  trickling  through  the  wheels  within;  while 
the  mangled  remains  of  that  youth  whom  he  had  instruct- 
ed in  his  business,  and  looked  upon  almost  like  a  son, 
lay  bleeding  beside  him. 

A  little  while  before  this,  Graham's  sister  had  met  with 
an  accident,  whereby  she  had  lost  part  of  her  hand,  and 
the  remainder  was  rendered  nearly  useless. 

Graham  had  now  been  in  the  factories  about  25  years, 
and  began  to  feel  an  earnest  desire  to  quit  them.  These 
repeated  trials,  first  his  own  accident,  then  his  sister's, 
and  afterwards  the  death  of  his  favorite  boy,  made  him 
look  upon  the  place  with  any  thing  but  a  favorable  eye. 

Having  previously  acquainted  his  masters  with  his  in- 
tentions, he  commenced  a  night  school  by  way  of  prac- 
tice for  himself,  teaching  the  children  of  the  factory  two 
evenings  in  the  week.  In  this  he  was  assisted  by  the 
young  masters.     This  continued  about  12  months. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1836,  he  settled  his  affairs 
with  his  masters,  and  having  saved  a  little  money  he 
commenced  school-keeping.  But  on  account  of  there 
being  but  few  working  people  able  to  send  their  children 
to  school,  and  people  in  a  higher  sphere  not  being  wil- 
ling to  send  their  children  to  be  instructed  by  one  who 
had  never  been  to  school  himself,  it  did  not  answer  his 
full  expectations. 

He  then  tried  to  get  employed  in  some  of  the  public 
schools  in  London,  but  failed  on  account  of  his  deformity. 
For  a  similar  reason  he  has  partly  failed  in  several  other 
things  he  tried.  In  1839,  being  then  33  years  of  age,  he 
bound  himself  an  apprentice  for  three  years  to  a  tailor  in 
London,  and  in  little  more  than  a  year  the  right  hand 
which  had  been  crushed  in  the  machinery,  got  so  bad  as 
to  oblige  him  to  give  that  up  also. 

The  remaining  part  of  his  savings  was  now  wanted  for 
the  cure  of  his  hand,  and  after  having  spent  all  his  money 


INCIDENTS    IN     THE     LIFE    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  25 

and  had  several  months  of  painful  experience,  under 
some  of  the  most  skilful  surgeons  of  London,  he  was 
obliged  to  submit  to  amputation  as  the  only  means  of  sav- 
ing his  life. 

On  recovery  he  set  himself  to  teach  the  left  hand  the 
knowledge  previously  possessed  by  the  right  hand,  such 
as  the  use  of  the  pen,  needle,  sheers,  razor,  &c.  He 
also  invented,  with  a  little  assistance  from  an  ingenious 
machinist  of  London,  an  artificial  arm,  and  several  in- 
struments, whereby  he  has  been  enabled  to  work  at  his 
trade  as  a  tailor. 

His  health,  as  a  matter  of  course,  has  suffered  severe- 
ly, and  although  he  looks  healthy,  yet  those  who  know 
him  best  say  his  constitution  is  quite  undermined,  in  con- 
sequence of  his  former  hardships  and  sufferings.  He 
does  not  calculate  on  more  than  three  days'  good  health 
at  one  time.  On  viewing  his  person  one  cannot  but  per- 
ceive at  a  glance,  that  he  was  intended  by  nature  for  a 
stout,  able  bodied  man,  although  he  now  stands  but  5  feet 
1  inch  high.  He  calculates  he  has  lost  by  his  deformity 
7  inches  and  a  half,  which  he  says  can  be  proved  by  un- 
erring natural  laws. 

Such  is  a  brief  history  of  an  English  factory  cripple. 
It  differs  but  little,  except  in  his  literary  attainments, 
from  many  of  the  same  class  of  persons,  of  whom  there 
are  at  this  time,  (1846)  upwards  of  10,000.  Many  of 
these  are  dependent  upon  their  friends  and  relatives  for 
support. 

Petition  after  petition  has  been  sent  into  the  two  houses 
of  Parliament,  to  the  prime  minister,  and  to  the  Queen, 
concerning  this  unfortunate  class  of  British  subjects,  but 
without  effect.  Had  they  only  been  black  instead  of\ 
white,  their  case  would  have  been  taken  into  considera- 
tion long  ago.  Or  if  they  had  been  inhabiting  any  other 
portion  of  the  Globe,  the  far-famed  English  philanthro- 
3 


26  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 

pists  would  have  found  them  out;  but  because  they  are 
in  England  itself,  under  their  very  eye,  their  case  is  un- 
heeded. 

There  is,  however,  one  comfort,  even  to  this  unfortu- 
nate class  of  human  beings,  viz.  that  their  sufferings  will 
be  but  of  short  duration,  and  their  deformities  will  not  be 
any  barrier  to  another  and  a  happier  state  of  existence. 


LETTER  III. 

THE    GENERAL    CONDITION    OF    THE    LABORING    CLASSES- 

For  the  last  few  years,  the  attention  of  the  upper  and 
middle  class  of  society  in  England  has  been  repeatedly 
and  forcibly  drawn  to  the  increasing  misery  and  destitu- 
tion of  the  laboring  classes.  In  the  year  1842,  the  "  At- 
las "  newspaper  proposed  to  give  a  prize  of  <£100,  ,£50, 
and  ,£25,  for  the  1st,  2d,  and  3d  best  essays  respectively, 
on  the  causes  of,  and  remedies  for  the  existing  distress 
of  the  country.  From  the  first  of  these  essays,  (which 
was  afterwards  made  public,)  and  other  sources  which 
may  be  relied  on,  I  am  partly  indebted  for  the  following 
facts. 

At  former  periods  of  our  history  we  have  heard  com- 
plaints of  national  distress,  and  witnessed  instances  of 
national  decay;  but  these  have  been  occasioned  by 
causes,  and  accompanied  by  symptoms,  very  different 
from  those  which  characterize  the  present  phase  of  social 
existence  in  England.  For  instance,  invasion  of  foreign 
enemies,  loss  of  national  independence,  decay  of  energy 
and  martial  spirit,  domestic   discord,   religious  persecu- 


OP  THE  LABORING  CLASSES.  27 

tion,  financial  embarrassment,  sudden  changes  in  the  ac- 
customed course  of  commerce,  are  all  recognized  causes 
and  symptoms  of  the  decline  of  nations.  Of  none  of  these 
do  we  find  a  trace  in  the  present  condition  of  England. 
On  the  contrary,  never,  perhaps,  was  there  a  period 
when  national  prosperity,  judged  of  by  these  historical 
tests,  stood  higher.  England  stands  without  dispute,  the 
first  naval  and  commercial  power  in  the  world.  It  would 
be  easy  to  accumulate  facts;  but  it  is  not  necessary  for 
our  present  purpose,  which  is  simply  to  show  that  the 
country  exhibits,  as  yet,  no  decided  symptoms  of  declin- 
ing wealth,  and  that  whatever  may  be  the  evils  which  af- 
flict society,  the  want  of  a  sufficient  capital  to  set  industry 
in  motion,  and  to  sustain  the  national  burdens,  is  cer- 
tainly not  among  them.  Where,  then,  is  the  cause  of 
this  wide-spread  distress? 

If  neither  the  political  circumstances,  the  financial 
conditions,  now  considered  with  reference  only  to  the 
amount  of  wealth — the  economical  state  of  the  country, 
shew  any  indications  of  decay  and  danger,  how  is  it  that 
so  many  serious  men  shake  their  heads  with  gloomy  ap- 
prehensions, and  at  times  feel  tempted  to  doubt  whether 
the  amount  of  evil  in  the  present  social  condition  of  Eng- 
land does  not  preponderate  over  the  good.  It  is  in  the 
condition  of  the  laboring  classes  that  the  danger  lies. 

Amidst  the  intoxication  of  wealth  and  progress,  and 
the  dreams  of  a  millennium  of  material  prosperity  to  be 
realized  by  the  inventions  of  science,  the  discoveries  of 
political  economy,  and  the  unrestricted  application  of 
man's  energy  and  intelligence  to  outward  objects,  society 
has  been  startled  by  a  discovery  of  the  fearful  fact,  that 
as  wealth  increases,  poverty  and  crime  increase  in  a 
faster  ratio,  and  that  in  almost  exact  proportion  to  the 
advance  of  one  portion  of  society  in  opulence,  intelli- 
gence,  and   civilization,  has  been  the   retrogression  of 


28  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 

another  and  more  numerous  class  towards  misery,  degre- 
dation  and  barbarism.  To  speak  more  specifically,  the 
leading  facts  to  which  the  evils  that,  in  one  shape  or 
other,  are  continually  forcing  themselves  upon  the  atten- 
tion of  society,  maybe  reduced,  appear  to  be — 1st.  The 
existence  of  an  intolerable  mass  of  misery,  including  in 
the  term  both  recognized  and  official  pauperism,  and  the 
unrecognized  destitution  that  preys,  like  a  consuming  ul- 
cer, in  the  heart  of  our  large  cities  and  densely  peopled 
manufacturing  districts.  2d.  The  condition  of  a  large 
proportion  of  the  independent  laboring  class,  who  are 
unable  to  procure  a  tolerably  comfortable  and  stable  sub- 
sistence in  return  for  their  labor,  and  are  approximating, 
there  is  too  much  reason  to  fear,  towards  the  gulf  of 
pauperism,  in  which  they  will  be  sooner  or  later  swal- 
lowed up,  unless  something  effectual  can  be  done  to 
arrest  their  downward  progress. 

With  respect  to  the  recognized  paupers,  it  is  stated  by 
a  writer  in  Blackwood's  Magazine,  that  in  England,  Ire- 
land and  Scotland,  the  number  is  ^pQQ^QQ,  It  is  also 
proved  by  facts  which  no  one  can  dispute,  that  a  large 
proportion  of  the  dense  masses  of  population,  crowded 
together  in  the  lower  districts  of  our  large  towns,  have 
absolutely  no  regular  and  recognized  occupations,  and 
live  as  it  were,  outlaws  upon  society.  They  have,  in 
fact,  nothing  to  look  forward  to;  nothing  to  fall  back 
upon.  One  or  two  facts  speak  emphatically  as  to  the 
social  deterioration. 
[In  Manchester,  in  1839,  as  many  as  42,964  persons, 
ornearly  one  sixth  of  the  population,  were  admitted  at 
different  medical  charities;  and  more  than  one  half  of  the 
inhabitants  are  either  so  destitute  or  degraded,  as  to  re- 
quire the  assistance  of  public  charity  in  bringing  their 
offspring  into  the  world.  And  let  it  be  here  remembered 
that  the  industrious  inhabitants  of  this  large  town   have 


OF    THE    LABORING    CLASSES.  29 

done  more  to  uphold  what  is  falsely  called  the  "  dignity 
of  the  nation,"  than  any  other  town  in  the  country  .J  In 
Glasgow,  in  the  five  years  ending  in  1840,  as  many  as 
62,051  persons  were  attacked  by  typhus  fever,  a  disease 
generally  produced  by  filth,  intoxication  and  vice.  ('In 
Liverpool,  35,000  to  40,000  of  the  lower  population  live 
in  cellars,,  without  any  means  of  light  or  ventilation  but 
the  door.J  A  like  picture  is  presented  to  the  eye  of  an 
attentive  observer  of  society,  in  Leeds,  Birmingham, 
Brighton,  London,  and  almost  all  the  large  towns. 

The  Journal  of  Civilization,  says,  If  it  were  required 
to  draw  a  strong  picture  of  man,  morally  and  socially 
degraded  by  misery,  the  savage  tribes  of  distant  zones 
would  in  all  probability  be  selected  to  sit  for  it.  Yet 
such  darkly  shaded  originals,  such  painful  realities,  need 
not  be  sought  in  remote  lands.  Let  the  street  beggar 
or  the  London  thief  be  followed  to  his  home,  (if  he  have 
one,)  and  mankind  will  be  seen  existing  in  degradation 
as  great,  enduring  misery  as  sharp,  as  the  South  Sea 
Islanders,  or  the  South  Africans  in  their  worst  aspect. 
Amongst  them,  poverty,  vice,  ignorance,  have  no  con- 
trast to  heighten  their  effects;  but  here  in  England — in 
London,  perhaps  at  our  own  back  door,  wretchedness 
the  most  acute,  infamy  the  most  shocking,  exist  upon  the 
same  square  acre  with  a  high  condition  of  luxury  and 
wealth;  and  despite  their  near  neighborhood,  it  may  be 
safely  conjectured  that  the  British  public  know  more  of; 
the  social  misery  of  savage  nations,  than  they  do  of  their 
own  poor.  Yet,  upon  this  ignorance,  the  debased  and 
the  criminal  are  specially  legislated  for,  sometimes  incor- 
rectly, always  inefficiently. 

Amongst  the  various  causes  of  this  state  of  things,  the 

principle,  I  believe,  is,  that  of  mammon  worship.     This 

is  one  of  the  vices  of  modern  English  society,  along  with 

an  undue  depreciation  and  neglect  of  the   duties,  obliga- 

3* 


I 

30  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 

tions,  and  influences  of  an  unseen  and  spiritual  world. 
The  prevalence  of  this  spirit  in  modern  English  society, 
is  a  fact  too  obvious  to  admit  of  dispute,  or  to  require 
demonstration. 

The  very  expressions  of  our  common,  familiar  conver- 
sation, testify  to  it.  A  "  respectable  "  man  has  come  to 
signify,  a  man  who  lives  in  a  manner  which  denotes  the 
possession  of  a  certain  income;  a  "successful"  man 
means  a  man  who  has  succeeded  in  realizing  a  certain 
fortune ;  a  "  good  match  "  is  synonymous  with  a  marriage 
to  a  man  of  handsome  means.  The  practical  working 
faith  of  most  people  for  the  last  century  seems  to  be,  that 
to  get  on  in  the  world,  and  realize  a  certain  amount  of 
money  and  social  position,  is  the  one  thing  needful.  The 
sense  of  duty,  which  is  in  itself  infinite,  has  resolved  it- 
self into  a  sort  of  infinite  duty  of  making  money.  Our 
whole  duty  of  man,  is,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  rich;  or, 
failing  in  this,  in  the  second  place  to  appear  rich.  On 
all  hands  the  doctrine  is  zealously  preached  and  prac- 
tised, that  "poverty  is  disgraceful,  and  that  hard  cash 
covers  a  multitude  of  sins."  Now  to  the  prevalence  of 
this  spirit  may  be  directly  traced  a  large  portion  of  the 
evils  of  which  society  complains.  This  part  of  the  sub- 
ject might  be  carried  to  a  much  greater  length,  did  our 
limits  allow  it;  this  not  being  the  case,  I  shall  simply 
draw  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the  want  of  sufficient 
remuneration  for  industry,  which  is  one  of  the  principal 
causes  of  the  evils  of  the  poor. 

I  find  on  reference  to  a  book  in  my  possession,  that  in 
the  time  of  Henry  the  VIII,  laws  were  passed  relating  to 
food  and  wages,  which  placed  the  working  man  in  a  far 
more  favorable  position,  than  he  is  in  England  at  the 
present  time.  The  price  of  provisions,  and  the  wages  of 
labor  were  settled  by  act  of  Parliament.  The  very  same 
Parliament  that  passed  the  law  that  no  corn  be  exported, 


OF  THE  LABORING  CLASSES. 


31 


also  enacted  that  the  rate  of  wages  should  be  fourpmn 
per  day;  and  this  circumstance  is  well  worth  the  atten- 
tion of  the  producers  of  wealth;  inasmuch  as  the  above 
wise  and  just  laws  were  passed  by  a  House  of  Commons 
elected  on  the  principle  of  universal  suffrage.  The 
money  of  the  time  of  Henry,  had  a  different  value  to  the 
money  in  use  at  the  present  time ;  we  will  therefore  see 
what  a  day's  work  was  worth  in  England  at  the  two  pe- 
riods mentioned,  viz.  1530  and  1840. 

First,  we  see  that  any  individual  employing  any  other 
individual,  could  not,  according  to  act  of  Parliament, 
give  less  than  fourpence  per  day.  He  might  give  more, 
but  he  could  not  give  less. 

The  price  of  provisions  being  regulated  by  act  of  Par- 
liament, was  as  follows,  in  1530,  to  which  is  added  the 
price  in  1840. 


A  fat  Ox,  .    . 

A  fat  Sheep, 
A  fat  Goose,  . 
Eggs  per  dozen, 
Cow,     .     .    . 
Fat  Pig,    .     . 
A  pair  of  Chickens 
Wheat  per  quarter 
Wine  per  quart, 
Table  Beer  per  gallon 
Shoes  per  pair,  .     .     . 


1530.  1840. 

£0  16s.  Od £20    Os.Od. 

0    12 

0    0    2£ 

0    0    0J 

0  12    0 

0    3    4 

0    0     1 

0    6    0 

0    0    1 

0    0    1 

0    0    4 


£1  19s.  4d. 


1   15 

0 

0    3 

6 

0     0 

9 

10    0 

0 

3    3 

0 

0    2 

0 

3    0 

0 

0    3 

4 

0     1 

8 

0  10 

0 

338  19s 

3d. 

In  1530,  you  see  there  was  something  like  justice  meted 
out  to  the  working  man.  You  will  perceive  that  the  la- 
borer, in  the  course  of  20  weeks,  could  earn  as  much  as 
would  purchase  the  list  of  articles  enumerated  above; 
but  the  laborer  had  a  greater  advantage  than  appears  at 
first  sight;  the  act  distinctly  specifies  that  the  employer 
must  give  fourpence  per  diem,  at  the  least,  so  that  the  la- 


32  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 

borer  was  at  liberty  to  hire  himself  or  not;  and,  you  may 
rest  assured,  that  wages  were  oftener  above  the  fourpence 
per  day,  than  at  it.  Again,  while  the  articles  above 
mentioned  were  brought  to  market,  and  could  not  be  sold, 
only  at  a  certain  price,  beyond  which  they  dare  not  be 
sold,  yet  the  person  selling  was  often  compelled  to  sell 
them  at  a  lower  price.  Thus  the  working  man  had  a 
double  advantage  to  what  he  has  now;  because,  although 
provisions  might  be  lower  in  price,  and  the  rate  of  wages 
higher,  yet  wages  could  not  be  reduced  lower,  nor  provis- 
ions higher,  than  the  act  specified. 

Now  in  1840  the  average  rate  of  wages  was  about  ten 
shillings  per  week  in  England.  This  I  believe  is  admit- 
ted by  all  who  have  wrote  upon  the  subject.  You  will 
thus  see  by  a  little  calculation  that  the  working  man  was 
compelled  to  work  seventy-eight  weeks,  for  the  same 
amount  of  comforts  that  he  could  purchase  in  1530  for 
twenty  weeks  labor. 

It  must  be,  therefore,  plainly  evident,  that  the  condi- 
tion of  the  people,  as  far  as  plenty  to  eat,  drink  and  wear, 
were  concerned,  was  far  preferable  to  what  it  is  now, 
because  the  working  classes  could  command  four  times 
as  much  of  the  necessaries  of  life  then  as  they  can  now; 
and  this  fact  is  borne  out  by  the  evidence  of\^rr_John 
Fortesque.  "The  people,"  says  he,  "have  plenty  of 
>«^->  fish,  flesn  and  fowl,  the  best  furniture  in  their  houses*, 
they  are  well  clad  in  woolen  clothes;  they  never  drink 
water  except  in  Lent,  or  fast  days,  but  wine  or  beer;" 
yet  these  are  the  times  that  are  called  dark  and  barba- 
rous. It  would  be  well,  indeed,  if  the  barbarous  custom 
of  having  enough  of  the  comforts  of  life  might  again  be 
the  lot  of  the  laboring  population  of  England. 

Contrast  the  above  statement  with  the  speech  of  the 
Queen  of  England  from  the  throne,  in  the  early  part  of 
1846.     "  I  deeply  lament  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop, 


OF  THE  LAKORING  CLASSES.  33 

as  this  is  an  article   of  food  that  forms  the  chief  subsis- 
tence of  great  numbers  of  my  people." 

And  again,  on  the  19th  of  January,  1847,  her  speech 
from  the  throne  commences  thus. 

"My  Lords  and  Gentlemen — It  is  with  the  deepest 
concern  that  upon  your  again  assembling,  I  have  to  call 
your  attention  to  the  dearth  of  provisions,  which  prevails 
in  Ireland,  and  in  some  parts  of  Scotland." 

How  the  Queen  could  make  such  a  declaration  in  the 
face  of  the  civilized  world,  when  it  is  a  well  known  fact 
that  the  same  people  who  are  living  upon  potatoes — nay 
even  dying  by  thousands  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of 
life,  are  exporting  annually  several  thousand  tons  of  pork, 
grain,  poultry,  eggs,  butter,  cheese,  and  many  other 
articles  of  food  which  their  insufficient  remuneration  for 
labor  will  not  allow  them  to  touch — I  say,  how  she  could  | 
come  before  Parliament  and  make  this  statement,  I  can- 
not imagine. 

Innumerable  facts  might  be  quoted  in  favor  of  the 
principles  which  I  have  endeavored  here  to  inculcate; 
but  I  leave  what  has  been  said  to  the  reflection  of  the 
candid  reader.* 

*  A  recent  number  of  the  London  "  Times  "  .Newspaper,  contains  the 
following  paragraph.  /  / 

"Poor  Ireland  exports  more  food  than  any  other  country  in  the  whole .  . 
world-^rrotTneTcly  more  in  proportion  to  its  people,  or  its  area;  but  abso- 
lull  iv  more.  Its  exports  of  food  are  greater  than  those  of  the  United 
State*,  or  of  Russia,  vast  and  inexhaustible  as  we  are  apt  to  think  the  re- 
SjourcesoPthi  se  countries  are.  Such  a  fact  as  this  is  very  compatible  with 
a  people  being  poor ;  but  it  at  least  shows  that  one  ought  to  inquire 
wiiat  son  of  a  poverty  it  is.  Stand  on  the  quays  of  Ireland,,  and  see  the 
full  freighted  vessels  leaving  her  noble  rivers  and  coves.  You  will  there 
see.  that,  so  far  from  Ireland  being  utterly,  radically  and  incurably  poor, 
barren  and  unprofitable,  she  is  one  of  the  great  feeders  of  ilnglandj^ nay. 
its  chief  pur-,  vor.  Ireland  dors  this  out  of  her  poverty,  besides  feeding, 
after  a  manner,  an  immense  population.  It  is  this  that  adds  so  painful  an 
interest  to  her  miserable  state  ;  that  she  should  '  make  many  rich/  and  yet 
remain  herself  so  poor,  and   be  the  author  of  an  abundance  which  she  is 


34  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 


LETTER   IV. 

AGRICULTURAL     LAEORERS     OF\  WILTS, i   jDORSET,j  pEVONJ 
AND     SOMERSET. 

I  have  been  very  careful  to  collect  the  facts  here  set 
down  from  the  most  correct  sources;  and  have  inserted 
nothing  but  what  was  confirmed  by  my  own  experience 
and  investigation.  In  this  and  future  letters  I  shall  treat 
each  branch  of  industry  separately.  And  first  of  agricul- 
ture. 

The  agricultural  districts  of  England  are  widely  sepa- 
rated from  each  other;  the  nature  of  the  employment,  the 
remuneration  for  labor,  habits  of  the  people,  &c,  are 
also  different  in  the  several  districts,  and  it  will  there- 
fore be  necessary  for  a  clear  understanding  of  the  sub- 
ject, that  I  should  take  each  district  separately.  I  shall 
confine  myself  in  this  letter  to  the  four  counties  of  Wilts, 
Dorset,  Devon  and  Somerset. 

Strictly  speaking,  there  is  no  great  uniformity  in  the 
agricultural   features   of  these  contiguous  counties,   al- 


not  permitted  herself  to  enjoy.  Great  Britian  not  only  draws  nothing  from 
the  Irish  treasury,  but  gives  Ireland  the  gratuitous  benefit  of  her  own  enor- 
mous revenue.  The  whole  of  the  Irish  revenue,  including  every  sixpence 
obtained  for  customs,  excise,  stamps  and  postage — from  tea,  sugar,  coffee, 
tobacco,  spirits,  and  from  every  other  article  imported,  as  manufactured  in 
the  island,  is  spent  in  Ireland  itself.  Not  one  sixpence  is  remitted  to  the 
British  exchequer.  In  point  of  fact,  the  current  had  already  set  in  from 
the  British  to  the  Irish  treasury.  Ireland,  then,  is,  at  the  same  time,  rich 
and  poor.  It  produces  a  vast  superabundance  of  food,  but  that  food  is 
drained  from  its  shores.  It  is  not,  however,  drained  by  the  state.  It  is 
drained  in  a  great  measure,  by  the  landlords  and  their  creditors,  who,  the 
more  they  can  get,  the  more  they  will  drain." 

This  at  least  shows,  that  the  famine  in   Ireland  is  not  the  result  of  the 
Providence  of  God  ;  but  the  mismanagement  of  the  rulers  of  the  land. 


OF    THE    LABORING    CLASSES.  35 

though  there  is  sufficient  in  their  practice,  customs  and 
peculiarities,  to  justify  the  classification  here  adopted. 
They  are  all  more  or  less  dairy  and  grazing  counties; 
that  is,  devoted  to  the  manufacture  of  cheese,  rearing  of 
young  cattle,  and  sheep  farming.  Pigs  are  also  reared 
in  vast  numbers,  and  constitute  an  essential  appendage 
to  the  dairy  farm;  and  in  the  low  tracts,  immense  flocks 
of  geese  and  other  fowls  are  annually  fatted  for  the  city 
markets.  The  most  extensive  orchards  in  Britain  are  to 
be  found  in  the  valleys  of  Devon  and  Somerset,  and  hence 
the  management  of  these,  and  the  subsequent  manufac- 
ture of  cider  and  perry,  constitute  one  of  the  main  duties 
of  the  farmer. 

The  practice  of  employing  women  prevails  more  or 
less  in  all  these  counties;  their  out-door  labor  consists 
in  hay-making,  reaping,  hoeing  turnips,  weeding  corn, 
picking  stones,  beating  manure,  planting  and  digging  po- 
tatoes, pulling  turnips,  and  occasionally  hacking  them 
for  cattle.  They  are  also  sometimes  employed  in  win- 
nowing corn,  about  the  threshing  machine,  and  in  leading 
horses  and  oxen  at  the  plough.  The  in-door  labor  is  milk- 
ing and  making  cheese,  and  looking  after,  cleaning,  turn- 
ing, weighing,  and  removing  the  cheeses  that  are  already 
made.  This  is  a  sort  of  work  that  is  said  to  be  "  never 
finished." 

The  wages  of  women  differ  slightly,  not  only  in  adjoin- 
ing counties,  but  even  on  different  farms,  according  to 
the  character  of  the  farmer,  or  the  ability  and  skill  of  the 
laborer.  Generally  speaking,  all  light  work,  such  as 
apple-picking,  turnip-hoeing,  stone-gathering,  and  the 
like,  is  paid  at  the  rate  of  sixteen  cents  a  day,  with  an 
allowance  of  cider.  Hay-making  at  twenty  cents,  and 
potato  lifting  and  harvest  work  at  twenty-four  cents,  with 
dinner  in  harvest  time,  and  a  quart  of  cider.  Most  of  the 
cider  is  saved  by  the  women  for  their  husbands.     When 


36  THE    GENERAL    CONDITION 

women  work  by  the  piece,  they  strive  to  earn  higher 
wages,  say  J  1,25  a  week  in  summer,  $1,00  to  $1,10  in 
winter.     These  are  the  regular  wages  with  cider. 

In  some  of  the  Dorsetshire  villages,  the  younger  fe- 
males are  much  engaged  in  button-sewing,  and  as  it  is  a 
lighter  employment,  are  not  tempted  to  field  work,  unless 
during  summer,  and  then  only  at  twenty  to  twenty-four 
cents  a  day. 

Women  accustomed  to  field  labor,  represent  it  as  good 
for  their  health  and  spirits;  this,  however,  must  be  taken 
with  some  restrictions;  for  where  women  poorly  clad  are 
exposed  to  cold  and  wet,  and  this  for  ten  or  twelve  hours 
a  day  when  the  weather  will  permit,  catarrhs  and  rheu- 
matism will  be  the  result. 

From  this  cause  we  find- them  complaining,  as  their 
husbands  too  often  do,  of  stiffness  and  pains  at  the  joints, 
long  before  such  complaints  can  be  the  result  of  old  age, 
or  natural  infirmity. 

Regarding  the  moral  condition  of  the  females  in  these 
counties,  the  evidence  is  very  conflicting.  Here  we  find 
a  clergyman  inveighing  against  field  labor,  as  the  source 
of  most  of  the  immorality  in  the  district;  another,  an  old 
fashioned  farmer,  declaring  quite  the  contrary;  a  third, 
less  biased  than  either,  admitting  that  field  labor  is  not 
the  best  school  for  morals;  a  fourth,  a  grave  old  man, 
says,  "  those  young  ones  would  never  stick  to  their  work 
were  it  not  for  the  cider  I  find  them,  and  the  fun  they 
make  for  themselves." 

There  are  three  modes  in  which  the  employment  of 
children  may  take  place  within  these  counties:  they  may 
be  taken  to  assist  their  parents,  may  be  hired  by  the  day 
or  week  as  women  are,  or  may  be  apprenticed  by  the 
parish.  The  servitude,  in  the  case  of  agricultural  ap- 
prenticeships, extends  from  the  age  of  ten  to  twenty-one 
for  boys,  and   generally  till  marriage  for  females.     The 


OF    THE    LABORING    CLASSES.  37 

younger  girls  are  employed  in  the  farm  houses  to  look 
after  children,  and  to  do  other  light  work.  Boys  from 
seven  years  of  age  (I  have  seen  them  even  younger,)  to 
twelve  are  employed  in  bird-scaring,  taking  care  of  poul- 
try, following  the  pigs  in  the  acorn  season,  herding  cat- 
tle, getting  wood  for  the  house,  and  the  like.  As  they 
get  stronger  they  lead  the  horses  and  oxen  at  the  plough, 
make  hay,  and  hoe  turnips,  and  by  fourteen  or  fifteen 
years  they  begin  to  hold  the  plough,  attend  to  the  stable, 
help  the  carter  and  drive  the  team.  After  that  time  they 
commence  mowing,  reaping,  hedging,  ditching,  and  the 
other  difficult  operations  performed  by  the  farm  laborers. 
The  hours  of  labor  for  boys  are  the  same  as  for  men  and 
women;  their  wages  are  from  thirty-six  cents  to  $1,10  a' 
week,  with  a  pint  of  cider  a  day.  They  are  taught  to 
love  drink  from  their  earliest  age,  and  a  few  years  so 
confirms  them  in  the  taste,  that  they  rarely,  if  ever,  get 
rid  of  it  in  after  life. 

Such  is  an  outline  of  the  employment  of  women  and 
children  in  agriculture  in  these  counties,  and  the  effect 
which  it  is  calculated  to  produce  upon  their  physical  and 
moral  condition.  The  labor,  taken  by  itself,  would  seem 
to  be  comparatively  harmless;  but,  taken  in  connection 
with  the  general  condition  of  the  laborer,  it  tends  in  a 
great  degree  to  depress  that  which  is  already  by  no 
means  exalted.  The  early  age  at  which  most  of  the  chil- 
dren are  taken  from  school,  prevents  their  getting  even 
the  rudiments  of  education.  They  are  too  early  associ- 
ated in  promiscuous  labor  with  men  and  women,  in  whose 
vices  they  become  adepts  long  before  they  have  attained 
the  years  of  maturity. 

The  almost  constant  employment  of  women  in  the  fields 

has  many  bad  effects  upon  their  families;  their  cottages 

are  not  properly  attended  to,  their  children  are  neglected, 

clothing  is  allowed  to  get  dirty  and  torn,  and  many  mat- 

4 


38  AGRICULTURAL    LABORERS 

ters  in  domestic  economy  are  allowed  to  fall  into  disorder, 
so  much  so,  that  some  women  say  it  is  more  to  their  ad- 
vantage to  stay  in  and  attend  to  affairs  at  home.  It  is, 
however,  to  the  general  condition  of  the  agricultural  la- 
borer in  these  counties  that  we  are  to  look  for  the  main 
evils  that  are  said  to  affect  his  case.  His  wages  vary 
from  two  to  three  dollars  per  week.  This  is  inadequate 
when  he  has  a  large  family  to  support;  and  the  conse- 
quence is,  want  of  sufficient  clothing,  neglect  of  personal 
cleanliness,  and  scantiness  of  diet.  At  the  farm  houses, 
where  the  single  men  live  with  their  masters,  of  course 
the  fare  is  better;  it  is  by  the  married  cottagers  that  the 
greatest  evils  are  felt. 

Their  cottages  are  small  and  in  bad  order;  they  are 
generally  damp  and  in  a  state  of  decay;  there  is  no  in- 
ducement to  cleanliness  or  neatness  on  the  part  of  the 
laborer,  and  hence  what  ought  to  be  homes,  are  mere 
hovels  for  shelter.  Cottages  generally  have  two  apart- 
ments; a  great  many  have  only  one.  The  consequence 
is,  that  it  is  very  often  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossi- 
ble, to  divide  a  family  so  that  grown  up  persons  of  differ- 
ent sexes  do  not  sleep  in  the  same  room.  Three  or  four 
persons  not  unfrequently  sleep  in  the  same  bed,  and  in  a 
few  instances  I  have  heard  of  families  who  have  arranged 
it  so,  that  the  females  of  both  families  slept  altogether  in 
one  cottage,  and  the  males  in  the  other.  Generally  an 
old  shawl  is  suspended  as  a  curtain  between  two  beds  in 
one  room. 


OF  KENT,  SURREY  AND  SUSSEX.  39 


LETTER  V. 

AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS   OF    KENT,    SURREY    AND    SUSSEX. 

The  reader's  attention  is  called  in  this  letter  to  the 
condition  of  the  agricultural  laborers  of  the  counties  of 
Kent,  Surrey  and  Sussex.  I  may  here  remark  that  I 
have  resided  in  various  parts  of  these  counties,  and  su- 
perintended one  estate  of  about  twenty  acres  of  land,  and 
that  many  of  the  facts  here  related  have  come  under  my 
own  observation. 

The  agriculture  of  these  counties  differs  in  many  re- 
spects from  that  of  other  districts  in  England.  These 
counties  present  a  great  variety  of  external  features, 
when  taken  separately;  but  when  collected  and  com- 
pared together,  they  exhibit  a  remarkable  unity  and 
sameness.  The  great  formation  of  the  wealden  clay,  the 
sand  and  the  chalk,  belong  to  each  and  all.  This  large 
and  central  tract  of  country  is  girt  with  a  belt  of  chalk 
hills,  a  fringe  of  sand  forms  the  union  between  the  chalk 
and  the  wealden. 

The  employment  of  women  is  not  so  varied  and  promis- 
cuous in  these  as  in  other  counties  of  England.  Gene- 
rally speaking,  there  are  few  grain-growing  or  stock- 
rearing  districts;  hence  corn,  hay,  turnip  and  potato 
work,  is  by  no  means  common.  Occasionally  we  find 
them  at  the  hay-harvest,  picking  stones  from  the  meadow 
land,  dropping  beans,  or  hoeing  turnips,  but  very  rarely 
at  reaping,  or  potato  lifting.  The  winter  work  is  per- 
formed by  the  men  and  boys  kept  on  the  farms.  The 
chief  employment  of  the  women  is  in  the  hop  gardens  and 
orchards,  and  in  the  former  there  is  continuous  work  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  year. 


40  AGRICULTURAL    LABORERS 

As  the  culture  of  the  hop  is  peculiar  to  this  district,  it 
may  be  necessary  to  give  a  brief  description  of  the  mode 
in  which  it  is  conducted.  The  land  is  prepared  with  con- 
siderable attention  by  fallowing,  deep  stirring,  and  clean- 
ing; it  is  next  thrown  into  rows  of  little  hillocks  at  equal 
distances;  and  in  these  hillocks  the  young  shoots  of  the 
hop  (previously  nursed  in  the  orchard)  are  planted. 

Opening  the  hills  consists  of  digging  a  hole  about  two 
feet  square  and  two  feet  deep  in  the  centre  of  these  hil- 
locks; this  is  done  for  the  purpose  of  loosening  the  soil, 
and  depositing  the  manure  for  the  future  crop.  When 
the  soil  has  been  replaced,  and  the  hillocks  again  com- 
pleted, several  young  shoots  are  planted.  This  is  per- 
formed in  February  and  March  by  men  and  boys.  Pole- 
ing  is  the  next  process,  which  is  performed  in  April,  be- 
fore the  hop  begins  to  shoot.  The  pole,  or  stake,  from 
eight  to  ten  feet  high,  furnishes  a  support  to  the  climbing 
vine  of  the  plant;  several  are  fixed  in  one  hill,  and  it  re- 
quires strong  muscular  exertions  to  do  so.  It  is  invaria- 
bly performed  by  the  man,  who,  however,  receives  assist- 
ance from  his  wife,  his  son,  and  sometimes  his  daughter. 
Tying  is  the  next  process;  that  is,  fastening  the  climbing 
vine  to  the  poles.*  This  process  is  carried  on  from  the 
moment  the  vine  has  shot  above  ground,  to  the  time  that 
it  arrives  at  maturity. 

Tying  is  invariably  done  by  the  women,  who  are  occa- 
sionally assisted  by  children.  When  the  hops  reach  the 
top  of  the  poles,  the  women  have  to  mount  on  a  kind  of 
ladder,  which  enables  them  to  fasten  the  vines  which  may 
have  blown  off;  this  is  called  horseing.  Skimming,  is 
effected  by  an  instrument,  so  called,  drawn  by  horses 
between  the  rows  of  hillocks  for  the  purpose  of  loosening 
the  earth  and  weeds.  The  horses  are  carefully  led  by 
boys,  and  the  instrument  is  guided  by  men. 

When  the   seed  of  the  hop  is  ripe,  which  generally 


OF    KENT,    SURREY    AND    SUSSEX.  41 

takes  place  in  September,  the  picking  season  commences; 
and  in  this  process  women  and  children  of  all  ages  are 
employed.  It  is  necessary  that  it  be  carefully  and 
speedily  done,  hence  the  great  annual  influx  of  Irish  and 
Londoners  to  the  hop  districts.  Thus  it  will  be  seen  that 
hop  growing  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  and  laborious 
duties  of  the  farmer,  its  culture  requiring  an  all  but 
ceaseless  round  of  watchfulness  and  toil. 

In  some  parts  of  Kent,  there  are  many  thousand  acres 
of  orchard  land,  and  in  these,  women  and  children  are 
much  employed  in  weeding,  gathering  fruit,  and  the  like. 

We  very  rarely  hear  of  cider  being  allowed  by  the 
farmer;  the  practice  is  almost  unknown  in  these  counties.; 

The  hours  during  which  female  labor  is  continued  are 
variable  in  these  counties,  owing  to  the  almost  universal 
practice  of  doing  all  sorts  of  work  by  contract;  that  is, 
at  so  much  per  acre,  per  bushel,  and  so  on.  The  time 
of  work  and  meals  are  fixed  by  the  laborer,  who  is  natu- 
rally anxious  to  earn  as  much  as  possible.  We  may, 
however,  mention  from  ten  to  twelve  hours  per  day  as 
the  most  general. 

With  regard  to  wages,  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  strike 
an  average,  though  we  may  mention  sixteen,  twenty,  and 
twenty-four  cents  a  day,  for  females,  on  arable  farms; 
twenty  to  twenty-four  cents  in  orchards;  twenty-four  to 
thirty-six  on  harvest  fields;  and  from  twenty-four  to  for- 
ty-eight cents  in  hop  plantations,  according  to  the  skill 
and  ability  of  the  worker.  The  men  and  boys  earn  much 
the  same  as  mentioned  in  my  last  communication.  The 
employment  of  children,  especially  boys,  is  more  common 
in  this,  than  in  any  other  district,  owing  to  the  abundance 
of  light  work  which  can  at  all  times  be  easily  obtained. 
They  generally  commence  at  seven  or  eight  years  of  age, 
and  continue  at  this  work  till  twelve. 

The  effect  of  juvenile  labor  upon  health  is  not  much 
4* 


42  AGRICULTURAL    LABORERS 

complained  of,  although  it  may  be  observed  that  a  weak- 
ness of  limb,  great  turning  out  of  the  feet,  and  a  drag- 
gling gait,  is  common  to  most  of  the  boys,  owing  to  being 
set  to  labor  at  too  early  an  age. 

Rheumatism  is  the  chief  disease  complained  of  by  men 
and  women,  arising  from  exposure  to  wet  and  cold,  a 
want  of  cleanliness,  and  inadequate  clothing  and  diet. 

On  the  arable  and  woodland  districts  there  is  nothing 
peculiar  in  respect  of  morality;  but  in  the  hop  and  or- 
chard localities,  the  morals  of  the  work  people  is  far  from 
being  well  spoken  of;  and  the  cause  generally  assigned 
is  this. 

At  the  proper  season,  hop-pickers  come  from  all  parts 
of  England  and  Ireland,  and  amongst  them  may  be  found 
unfortunate  members  of  various  classes.  Great  numbers 
go  from  the  crowded  districts  of  London,  and  they  are 
the  most  vicious  and  refractory.  These  associate  pro- 
miscuously together  during  the  day,  and  are  for  the  most 
part,  herded  together,  if  I  may  use  the  term,  during  the 
night,  so  long  as  the  season  of  hop  picking  continues.    . 

Ignorance  prevails  to  an  alarming  extent  among  the 
resident  laborers  in  this  district.  The  school  masters 
say  that  two-fifths  of  their  scholars  are  regularly  absent. 
It  is  quite  common  to  meet  with  boys  engaged  on  farms 
who  cannot  read  or  write.  I  have  had  boys  in  this  state 
of  ignorance  working  for  me,  and  it  is  remarkable  how 
eagerly  they  avail  themselves  of  any  favorable  opportu- 
nity of  learning,  when  proper  encouragement  is  held  out  to 
them.  The  being  of  a  God,  a  future  state,  the  number 
of  months  in  the  year  are  not  universally  known.  Super- 
stition, the  result  of  ignorance,  in  this  case  at  least,  still 
lurks  among  the  laboring  classes  in  these  counties.  The 
belief  in  charms  for  healing  of  bodily  hurts  is  not  uncom- 
mon. 

The  agricultural  laborer  in  this  district  holds  at  present 


OF  KENT,  SURREY  AND  SUSSEX.  43 

alow  position  in  the  social  scale;  and  the  urgency  of  im- 
mediate wants,  and  the  desire  to  keep  out  of  the  work- 
house, compel  him  too  frequently  to  drive  his  children  to 
labor  at  an  early  age.  It  is  a  distressing  fact,  that  the 
wife  and  children  are  obliged  to  accompany  the  husband 
in  his  labor  in  the  fields.  The  calling  of  the  mother 
away  from  the  charge  of  her  household,  and  the  intrust- 
ing domestic  matters  to  very  young  girls,  are  attended  with 
consequences  which  the  reader  may  imagine  better  than 
I  can  describe.  The  cottager  cannot  be  said  to  have  a 
comfortable  home.  The  common  practice  of  keeping  as 
many  lodgers  as  can  be  crammed  into  an  apartment  dur- 
ing the  hot  season,  does  not  improve  the  health  or  com- 
fort of  the  inmates.  While  the  food  and  clothing  of  the 
laboring  classes  in  this  district  is  much  better  than  in 
some  others,  it  is  by  no  means  such  as  these  industrious 
people  ought  to  be  able  to  obtain  in  return  for  their  in- 
dustry. But  while  the  laborer  has  much  to  answer  for 
his  own  improvidence,  his  master  can  by  no  means  be 
exempt  from  a  share  of  the  evil.  In  addition  to  a  want 
of  comfortable  cottages,  which  every  landlord  ought  to 
feel  it  his  duty  and  interest  to  provide,  the  laborer  is  half 
robbed  of  his  scanty  earnings  by  the  truck  system. 

It  is  a  common  practice  in  these  counties  to  pay  the 
wages,  both  of  men  and  women,  by  a  check  drawn  upon 
the  miller  of  the  village,  who  is  generally  related  to  the 
farmer,  the  laborer  getting  part  of  his  wages  in  flour  and 
part  in  money;  or,  it  may  be,  that  the  miller  again  hands 
him  over  to  the  grocer;  and  thus  the  poor  man  in  gene- 
ral pays  from  25  to  30  per  cent  more  for  his  victuals  than 
in  justice  and  honesty  he  should.  Nor  is  this  all;  he 
pays  the  highest  price  for  the  worst  goods,  and  dares  not 
complain.     This  crying  evil  ought  to  be  removed. 


44      IGNORANCE  AND  SUPERSTITION  IN  KENT. 


LETTER  VI. 

IGNORANCE  AND  SUPERSTITION  IN  KENT. 

In  order  to  give  the  reader  a  clearer  view  of  the  state 
of  the  people  in  this  district,  I  will  here  relate  some  re- 
markable transactions  which  took  place  in  May,  1838, 
near  Canterbury,  in  Kent.  I  was  then  living  about  thirty 
miles  from  the  scene  of  action,  and  well  remember  the 
sensation  these  events  produced  in  the  public  mind. 

Kent  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  counties  in  England, 
and  the  villages  and  scenery  around  Canterbury  are  pe- 
culiarly English.  Gently  rising  hills  and  picturesque 
vales,  covered  with  a  rich  herbage,  all  giving  proof  of  a 
minute  and  skilful  husbandry,  succeed  to  each  other. 
Fields  of  waving  corn  are  interspersed  with  gardens,  hop 
grounds  and  orchards. 

The  hero  of  the  Kent  disturbances,  was  John  Nicolls 
Thorns,  the  son  of  a  small  farmer  and  maltster,  at  St. 
Columb,  in  Cornwall.  He  appears  to  have  entered  life 
as  cellarman  to  a  wine  merchant  in  Truro.  Succeeding 
to  his  master's  business,  he  conducted  it  for  three  or  four 
years,  when  his  warehouse  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and 
he  received  about  §15,000  in  compensation  from  an  in- 
surance company.  Since  then,  during  more  than  ten 
years,  he  had  been  in  no  settled  occupation.  In  the 
year  1833,  he  appeared  as  a  candidate,  successively  for 
the  representation  of  Canterbury  and  East  Kent.  His 
fine  person  and  manners,  and  the  eloquent  appeals  he 
made  to  popular  feeling,  secured  him  a  certain  degree  of 
favor;  but  were  not  sufficient  to  gain  his  object.  Though 
baffled  in  this,  he  continued  to  address  the  populace  as 
their  peculiar  friend,  and  kept   up  his  influence   among 


IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION    IN    KENT.  45 

them.  In  July  of  the  same  year  he  made  an  appearance 
in  a  court  of  law  on  behalf  of  the  crew  of  a  smuggling 
vessel,  when  he  conducted  himself  in  such  a  way  as  to 
incur  a  charge  of  perjury. 

He  was  consequently  condemned  to  transportation  for 
seven  years,  but,  on  a  showing  of  his  insanity,  was  com- 
mitted to  permanent  confinement  in  a  lunatic  asylum, 
from  which  he  was  discharged  a  few  months  before  his 
death,  on  a  supposition  that  he  was  of  sound  mind. 

Immediately  after  his  liberation,  he  resumed  his  inter- 
course with  the  populace,  whose  opinion  of  him  was  prob- 
ably rather  elevated  than  depressed  by  his  having  suf- 
fered from  his  friendship  for  the  smugglers.  He  repeated 
his  old  stories  of  being  a  man  of  high  birth,  and  entitled 
to  some  of  the  finest  estates  in  Kent.  He  sided  with 
them  in  their  dislike  of  the  new  regulations  for  the  poor, 
and  led  them  to  expect  that  whatever  he  should  recover 
of  his  birthright,  should  be  as  much  for  their  interest  as 
his  own.  There  were  two  or  three  persons  of  substance 
who  were  so  far  deluded  by  him  as  to  lend  him  conside- 
rable sums  of  money.  One  gentleman  loaned  him  $1,000 
on  some  supposed  title  deeds. 

Latterly,  pretensions  of  a  more  mysterious  nature 
mingled  in  the  ravings  of  this  madman;  and  he  induced 
a  general  belief  amongst  the  ignorant  peasantry  around 
Canterbury,  that  he  was  either  the  Saviour  of  mankind 
sent  anew  upon  earth,  or  a  being  of  the  same  order  and 
commissioned  for  similar  purposes.  He  took  the  title  of 
Sir  William  Percy  Honeywood  Courtenay,  Knight 
of  Malta,  and  King  of  Jerusalem.  One  of  his  deluded 
followers  declared  afterwards  that  he  could  turn  any  one 
that  once  listened  to  him  whatever  way  he  liked,  and 
make  them  believe  what  he  pleased.  He  was  very  kind 
to  the  poor,  and  would  give  the  last  shilling  in  his  pocket 
to  a  poor  man.      His  aspect  was  very  imposing.     His 


46       IGNORANCE  AND  SUPERSTITION  IN  KENT. 

height  about  six  feet,  his  features  were  regular  and 
beautiful,  a  broad,  fair  forehead,  aquiline  nose,  small 
mouth,  and  full,  round  chin.  The  only  defect  was  a 
somewhat  short  neck.  He  possessed  uncommon  personal 
strength. 

Some  curious  significations  of  the  enthusiam  he  had 
excited  were  afterwards  observed  in  the  shape  of  scrib- 
blings  on  the  walls  of  a  barn,  which  I  copy  verbatim. 
"If you  new  he  was  on  earth,  your  harts  Wod  turn." 
"  But  don't  Wate  too  late."  On  the  side  of  a  barn  door 
was  the  following  : — "  O  that  great  day  of  judgment  is 
close  at  hand."  "  It  now  peps  in  the  door  every  man 
according  to  his  works;"  "our  rites  and  liberties  We 
Will  have." 

On  Monday,  the  28th  of  May,  the  frenzy  of  Thorns 
and  his  followers  seems  to  have  reached  its  height.  With 
twenty  to  thirty  persons,  in  a  kind  of  military  order,  he 
went  about  for  three  days  among  the  farm  houses  and 
villages  in  the  vicinity  of  Canterbury,  receiving  and  pay- 
ing for  refreshments.  One  woman  sent  her  son  to  him, 
with  a  M  mother's  blessing,"  as  to  join  in  some  great  and 
laudable  work.  He  proclaimed  a  great  meeting  for  the 
ensuing  Sunday,  which  he  said  was  to  be  "  a  glorious 
but  bloody  day." 

At  one  of  the  places  where  he  ordered  provisions  for 
his  followers,  it  was  in  these  words,  "feed  my  sheep." 
On  another  occasion  he  went  away  from  his  followers 
with  a  man  of  the  name  of  Wills,  and  two  other  of  the 
rioters,  saying  to  them,  "  Do  you  stay  here,  whilst  I  go 
yonder,"  pointing  to  a  bean  stack,  "and  strike  the 
blow." 

When  they  arrived  at  the  stack,  to  which  they  marched 
with  a  flag,  the  flag  bearer  laid  his  flag  on  the  ground, 
and  knelt  down  to  pray.  The  other  then  put  in  a  lighted 
match,  which  Thorns  seized  and  forbade  it  to  burn.     This 


IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION    IN    KENT.  47 

on  their  return  to  the  company  was  announced  as  a  mir- 
acle. 

On  Wednesday  evening  they  stopped  at  the  farm  house 
of  Bossenden,  where  the  farmer  finding  that  his  men  were 
seduced  by  the  impostor  from  their  duty,  sent  for  consta- 
bles to  have  them  apprehended.  Two  brothers,  named 
Mears,  and  another  man,  accordingly  went  next  morn- 
ing, but  on  their  approach  Thorns  shot  one  of  the  bro- 
thers dead  with  a  pistol,  and  aimed  a  blow  at  the  other 
with  a  dagger,  whereupon  the  two  survivers  fled. 

At  an  early  hour  he  was  abroad  with  his  followers,  to 
the  number  of  about  forty.  He  undertook  to  administer 
the  sacrament,  in  bread  and  water,  to  the  deluded  men 
who  followed  him.  He  told  them,  on  this  occasion,  as 
he  did  on  many  others,  that  there  was  great  oppression 
in  the  land,  and  throughout  the  world;  but  that  if  they 
would  follow  him,  he  would  lead  them  on  to  glory.  He 
told  them  he  had  come  to  earth  on  a  cloud,  and  that  on  a 
cloud  he  should  some  day  be  removed  from  them;  that 
neither  bullets  nor  weapons  could  injure  him  or  them,  if 
they  had  but  faith  in  him  as  their  Saviour;  and  that  if 
ten  thousand  soldiers  came  against  them,  they  would 
either  turn  to  their  side,  or  fall  dead  at  his  command.  At 
the  end  of  this  harangue,  Alexander  Foad,  whose  jaw 
was  afterwards  shot  off  by  the  military,  knelt  down  at  his 
feet  and  worshipped  him;  so  did  another  man  of  the  name 
of  Brankford.  Foad  then  asked  Thorns  whether  he 
should  follow  him  in  the  body,  or  go  home  and  follow  him 
in  heart;  to  which  he  replied,  "  Follow  me  in  the  body." 
Foad  then  sprang  on  his  feet,  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy,  and 
with  a  voice  of  great  exultation,  exclaimed,  "  O,  be  joy- 
ful !  O,  be  joyful  !  The  Saviour  has  accepted  me.  Go 
on,  go  on;  till  I  drop,  I'll  follow  thee!"  Brankford 
also  was  accepted  as  a  follower,  and  exhibited  the  same 
enthusiastic    fervor.      At    this   time    his    denunciations 


48       IGNORANCE  AND  SUPERSTITION  IN  KENT. 

against  those  who  should  desert  him,  were  terriffic.  His 
eyes  gleamed  like  a  coal  of  fire  while  he  was  scattering 
about  these  awful  menaces.  It  is  believed  that  if  any  of 
his  followers  had  attempted  to  desert  him  at  this  time,  he 
would  have  shot  them.  A  wood-cutter,  (not  a  follower,) 
went  up  to  him,  shook  hands,  and  began  to  converse  with 
him,  and  among  other  things,  asked  him  if  it  was  true 
that  he  had  shot  the  constable.  "Yes,"  said  he  coolly, 
"I  did  shoot  the  vagabond,  and  I  have  eaten  a  hearty 
breakfast  since.  I  was  only  executing  upon  him  the 
justice  of  heaven,  in  virtue  of  the  power  which  God  has 
given  me." 

The  two  repulsed  constables  had  immediately  proceed- 
ed to  Feversham,  for  the  purpose  of  procuring  fresh  war- 
rants and  the  necessary  assistance.  A  considerable 
party  of  magistrates  and  other  individuals,  now  advanced 
to  the  scene  of  the  murder,  and  about  mid-day  (Thursday, 
May  31st,  1838,)  approached  Thorns'  party,  at  a  place 
called  the  Osier-bed,  where  the  Rev.  Mr.  Handly,  the 
clergyman  of  the  parish  and  a  magistrate,  used  every 
exertion  to  induce  the  deluded  men  to  surrender  them- 
selves, but  in  vain.  Thorns  defied  the  assailants,  and 
fired  at  Mr  Handly,  who  then  deemed  it  necessary  to  ob- 
tain military  aid  before  attempting  further  proceedings. 
A  detachment  of  the  45th  regiment,  consisting  of  100 
men,  was  brought  from  Canterbury,  under  the  command 
of  Major  Armstrong.  A  young  officer,  Lieutenant  Ben- 
nett, who  belonged  to  another  regiment,  and  was  at  Can- 
terbury on  furlough,  proposed,  under  a  sense  of  duty,  to 
accompany  the  party,  on  the  condition  that  he  should  be 
allowed  to  return  before  6  o'clock  to  dine  with  some 
friends. 

At  the  approach  of  the  military,  Thorns  and  his  men 
took  up  a  position  in  Bossenden  Wood,  between  two 
roads.     Major  Armstrong  divided  his  men  into  two  bodies, 


IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION    IN    KENT.  49 

of  equal  numbers,  that  the  wood  might  be  penetrated  from 
both  of  these  roads  at  once,  so  as  to  inclose  the  rioters; 
the  one  party  he  took  command  of  himself,  and  the  other 
was  placed  under  the  command  of  Lieutenant  Bennett. 
The  magistrates,  who  accompanied  the  party,  gave  or- 
ders to  the  officers  to  take  Thorns  dead  or  alive,  and  as 
many  of  his  men  as  possible.  The  two  parties  then  ad- 
vanced into  the  wood  by  opposite  roads,  and  soon  came 
within  sight  of  each  other,  close  to  the  place  where  the 
fanatics  were  posted.  A  magistrate  in  Armstrong's  party 
endeavored  to  address  the  rioters,  and  induce  them  to 
surrender;  but  while  he  was  speaking,  Lieutenant  Ben- 
nett had  rushed  upon  his  fate.  He  had  advanced,  at- 
tended by  a  single  private,  probably  for  the  purpose  of 
calling  upon  the  insurgents  to  submit,  when  the  madman 
who  led  them  advanced  to  meet  him,  and  Major  Arm- 
strong had  just  time  to  exclaim,  "Bennett,  fall  back," 
when  Thorns  fired  a  pistol  at  him  within  a  few  yards  of 
his  body.  Bennett  had  apprehended  his  danger,  and 
had  his  sword  raised  to  defend  himself  from  the  approach- 
ing maniac;  a  momentary  collision  did  take  place  be- 
tween him  and  his  slayer,  but  the  shot  had  lodged  with 
fatal  effect  in  his  side,  and  he  fell  from  his  horse  a  dead 
man.  Thorns  fought  for  a  few  seconds  with  others  of 
the  assailants,  but  was  prostrated  by  the  soldier  attending 
Mr.  Bennett,  who  sent  a  ball  through  his  brain.  The 
military  party  then  poured  in  a  general  discharge  of  fire- 
arms on  the  followers  of  the  impostor,  of  whom  eight 
were  killed,  and  others  severely  wounded,  one  of  whom 
afterwards  died.  A  charge  was  made  upon  the  remain- 
der by  the  surviving  officer,  and  they  were  speedily  over- 
powered and  taken  into  custody. 

Of  the  deluded  men  who  followed  Thorns,  nine  were 
killed,  who  left  four  widows  and  ten  children;  sixteen 
were  sent  to  jail,  and  eleven  discharged  on  bail.     Nearly 


50  IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION    IN    KENT. 

the  whole  were  men  of  steady,  reputable  character,  and 
some  of  them  were  in  the  receipt  of  wages  considerably 
above  the  average  of  the  district. 

This  occurrence  broke  upon  the  public  ear  with  a 
startling  effect,  and  the  Central  Society  of  Education  in 
London  sent  a  gentleman  down  to  investigate  the  circum- 
stances on  the  spot.  The  result  of  his  inquiries  has  been 
given  to  the  world  in  an  elaborate  paper  in  the  third  vol- 
ume of  the  publication  issued  by  the  Society,  to  which 
book  I  refer  the  reader  for  a  further  account  of  these 
riots.  I  will,  however,  make  a  few  short  extracts  to 
show  the  state  of  education  among  the  peasantry  of  Kent. 

The  report  gives  to  fifty-one  families  examined,  forty- 
five  children  above  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  and  117 
under  that  age.  Of  the  first  class,  eleven  only  can  read 
and  write,  twenty-one  can  read  a  little,  and  the  remain- 
der cannot.  In  the  second  class,  forty-two  attend  school, 
but  several  of  these  go  only  occasionally,  the  rest  do  not 
go  at  all.  Six  only  can  read  and  write;  of  twenty-two 
who  can  read,  only  thirteen  read  fluently,  and  nine  very 
little;  and  the  remainder  cannot  read  at  all.  In  twelve 
families  the  boys  assist  their  father  in  his  labor,  and  sel- 
dom receive  any  instruction.  In  fifteen  families  the  girls 
do  the  household  matters,  and  in  thirty-four  families  they 
do  nothing  but  wash  and  needle-work. 

The  parish  possessed  a  Sunday  school,  and  three 
others,  in  one  only  of  which  was  writing  taught.  This 
school  was  kept  by  a  master,  who,  being  from  physical 
infirmity  incapable  of  labor,  was  obliged  to  adopt  this 
mode  of  life.  He  had  only  eighteen  scholars,  and  half 
of  this  number  came  from  neighboring  parishes.  The 
two  other  schools  were  merely  dame-schools,  in  which 
nothing  but  sewing  and  reading  are  taught.  Many  of 
the  children  attend  so  irregularly,  and  are  often  absent 
for   such  long  periods,    that  they  forget   all  they  have 


IGNORANCE    AND    SUPERSTITION    IN    KENT.  51 

learned.  Owing  to  this,  some  children  are  unable  to 
read,  after  being  members  of  the  school  two  or  three 
years.  The  gentleman  above  mentioned,  says,  "  It 
would  be  easy,  if  it  were  required,  to  adduce  reasons  for 
believing  that  the  gross  ignorance  shown  to  exist  in  these 
districts,  is  not  confined  to  them,  but  that  their  condition 
may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  sample  of  that  of  the  same 
class  in  other  parts  of  the  country."  And  again,  "A 
little  consideration  of  the  nature  of  rural  life  will  show 
the  danger  of  leaving  the  peasantry  in  such  a  state  of  ig- 
norance. In  the  solitude  of  the  country,  the  uncultivated 
mind  is  much  more  open  to  the  impressions  of  fanaticism 
than  in  the  bustle  and  collision  of  towns.  In  such  a  stag- 
nant state  of  existence  the  mind  acquires  no  activity,  and 
is  unaccustomed  to  make  those  investigations  and  com- 
parisons necessary  to  detect  imposture.  The  slightest 
semblance  of  evidence  is  often  sufficient  with  them  to 
support  a  deceit  which  elsewhere  would  not  have  the 
smallest  chance  of  escaping  detection.  If  we  look  for  a 
moment  at  the  absurdities  and  inconsistencies  practised 
by  Thorns,  it  appears  at  first  utterly  inconcievable  that 
any  person  out  of  a  lunatic  asylum  could  have  been  de- 
ceived by  him.  That  an  imposture  so  gross  and  so  slen- 
derly supported  should  have  succeeded,  must  teach  us, 
if  any  thing  will,  the  folly  and  danger  of  leaving  the  ag- 
ricultural population  in  the  debasing  ignorance  which 
now  exists  among  them." 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  one  of  the  most  strange  and 
singular  popular  delusions  of  modern  times.  It  would 
have  given  me  pleasure  to  have  been  able  to  say,  that  a 
great  improvement  had  taken  place  since  1838;  such, 
however,  is  not  the  case. 


52   AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS  OF  SUFFOLK,  NORFOLK, 


LETTER  VII. 

AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS  OF  SUFFOLK,  NORFOLK,  LIN- 
COLN, YORKSHIRE  AND  NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Leaving  the  counties  of  Kent,  &c,  let  us  now  proceed 
northward,  into  the  counties  of  Suffolk,  Norfolk  and  Lin- 
coln. These  counties  are  distinguished  from  other  dis- 
tricts of  England,  in  consequence  of  their  being  more 
exclusively  under  tillage.  The  business  of  mixed  hus- 
bandry— that  is,  the  production  of  almost  every  variety 
of  white  and  green  crop — is  here  carried  to  great  perfec- 
tion; this  involves  a  constant  routine  of  manual  labor, 
which  the  custom  of  the  country  consigns  chiefly  to  wo- 
men and  children.  As  in  the  counties  already  noticed, 
we  find  the  people  engaged  in  field  labor  occasionally 
suffering  from  bad  colds  and  severe  rheumatism.  The 
employment  df  married  women  is  much  lamented,  as  it 
takes  them  away  from  their  domestic  duties,  and  leaves 
their  cottages  and  children  in  a  neglected  state.  But 
the  crowning  evil  in  these  counties  is  "the  gang  sys- 
tem." 

This  is  a  method  of  working  which  had  its  origin  at 
Castle  Acre,  in  Norfolk,  about  twenty-five  years  ago, 
and  now  prevails  in  many  contiguous  parishes.  Mr.  Den- 
ison,  a  Government  Commissioner,  thus  describes  the 
system  : 

"  Suppose  a  farmer  wishes  to  have  a  particular  piece 
of  work  done,  which  will  demand  a  number  of  hands,  he 
applies  to  a  gang-master,  who  contracts  to  do  the  work, 
and  furnish  the  laborers.  He  accordingly  gets  together 
as  many  hands  as  he  thinks  sufficient,  and  sends  them 
in  a  gang  to  their  place  of  work.     If  the  work,  as  usually 

w 


LINCOLN,   YORKSHIRE  AND   NORTHUMBERLAND.  53 

happens,  be  such  that  it  can  be  done  by  women  and  chil- 
dren, as  well  as  men,  the  gang  is  in  that  case  composed 
of  persons  of  both  sexes,  and  of  all  ages.  They  work 
together,  but  are  superintended  by  an  overseer,  whose 
business  it  is  to  see  that  they  are  steady  to  their  work, 
and  to  check  any  bad  language  or  conduct.  The  over- 
seer usually  goes  with  the  gang  to  the  place  of  work,  and 
returns  home  with  them  when  they  leave  off  for  the  day." 

The  system  is  said  to  be  productive  of  the  worst  conse- 
quences, which  will  be  readily  admitted,  when  it  is  con- 
sidered that  the  gangs  are  generally  composed  of  the 
lower  orders  from  the  towns,  yoked  together  without  re- 
gard to  age,  sex  or  character,  and  crowded  together  at 
night  when  the  distance  compels  them  to  lodge  on  the 
farm.  There  is  a  complete  disseverment  between  the 
farmer  and  the  laborer;  the  former  has  no  interest  either 
in  the  character  or  condition  of  the  latter;  the  whole 
power,  as  well  as  responsibility,  is  delegated  to  an  igno- 
rant and  grasping  gangsman,  whose  tyranny  is  the  more 
oppressive,  that  he  is  little  if  at  all  superior  either  in  in- 
tellect or  station  to  the  laborer. 

Such  a  practice  as  this  has  no  necessity  to  justify,  no 
single  advantage  to  recommend  its  continuance.  The 
gang-master  may  find  it  a  profitable  affair,  and  to  the 
farmer  of  600  acres  it  may  prove  an  easier  mode  of  get- 
ting his  work  performed;  but  it  seems  to  be  at  once  in- 
jurious to  the  interest  and  morals  of  the  laborer. 

It  subjects  him  in  the  first  place,  to  the  truck-trading 
oppression  of  the  gang-master,  who  not  only  screws  down 
his  wages  to  the  lowest  cent,  but  supplies  him  with  infe- 
rior articles  at  the  highest  price;  while  it  subjects  him 
to  greater  personal  toil,  and  contaminates  the  morals  of 
his  children.  There  is  nothing  in  the  agricultural  pecu- 
liarities of  this  district  which  demands  the  maintenance 
of  such  a  system. 

5* 


54   AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS  OF  SUFFOLK,  NORFOLK, 

With  respect  to  education,  it  is  not  much  better  than 
in  the  counties  we  have  just  left.  In  the  spring  of  the 
year  1842,  I  was  engaged  by  a  wealthy  Baronet  to  take 
the  management  of  a  school  in  this  district,  and  I  well 
remember  he  stated  to  me,  in  conversation  upon  this  sub- 
ject, "  that  the  children  in  his  parish  were  as  ignorant  as 
brutes."  An  unforeseen  occurrence  prevented  me  from 
fulfilling  that  engagement. 

Let  us  now  pass  on  to  Yorkshire,  Northumberland, 
&c.  In  this  district  the  women  and  children  work  in  the 
fields,  under  much  the  same  circumstances  as  in  most 
other  rural  situations,  and  for  much  the  same  remunera- 
tion. There  is  in  the  East  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  a  mode 
of  paying  wages  which  is  considered  a  great  evil,  and 
may  be  thus  described.  The  male  laborers  are  fed  in  the 
farm-houses,  and  have  a  certain  proportion  of  wages  de- 
ducted to  pay  for  their  meat.  This  sum,  (twenty-four 
cents  a  day,)  amounts  to  nearly  one  half  his  whole  wages; 
so  that  setting  aside  her  husband's  food,  about  $1,50  to 
$1,75  is  all  that  a  woman  has  with  which  to  confront  the 
rest  of  life;  her  food,  that  of  her  children,  the  rent  of  the 
cottage,  fuel,  schooling,  clothing,  medical  attendance, 
and  taxes,  have  all  to  be  provided  for  out  of  this  sum. 

The  farmers  like  this  system,  either  because  they  profit 
by  it,  or  because  they  have  a  notion  (which  is  very  rea- 
sonable,) that  men  work  better  with  a  full  belly  than  an 
empty  one.  The  men  like  it,  because,  no  doubt,  they  get 
a  better  dinner  than  would  otherwise  fall  to  their  share; 
but  upon  the  women  and  children  it  must  operate  as  an 
evil 

In  the  more  prosperous  districts  of  Yorkshire,  many  of 
the  cottages  have  small  gardens  in  which  most  of  the  veg- 
etables for  the  family  can  be  reared,  and  some  are  per- 
mitted to  have  a  cow  at  grass.  These,  however,  are  ex- 
ceptions.    In  point  of  mere  victualling  and  personal  com- 


LINCOLN,  YORKSHIRE  AND  NORTHUMBERLAND.  55 

fort,  the  Yorkshire  peasantry  may  be  said  to  be  com- 
paratively well  off;  but  there  still  seems  ample  room 
for  the  improvement  of  their  condition  in  education  and 
more  comfortable  housing. 

Farm  servants  in  Northumberland,  are  engaged  upon 
a  system  different  from  that  which  prevails  in  other  parts 
of  England.  In  the  absence  of  villages  (which  are  rare) 
to  supply  occasional  assistance,  each  farm  must  depend 
upon  its  own  resources;  a  necessity  is  thus  created  for 
having  a  disposable  force  of  boys  and  women  always  at 
command,  which  is  effected  in  the  following  manner. 
Each  farm  is  provided  with  an  adequate  number  of  cot- 
tages, having  small  gardens  adjoining,  and  every  man 
who  is  engaged  by  the  year  has  one  of  these  cottages; 
his  family  commonly  find  employment,  more  or  less,  but 
one  female  laborer  he  is  bound  to  have  always  in  readiness 
to  answer  the  master's  call  for  assistance,  and  to  work 
at  stipulated  wages.  To  this  engagement  the  name  of 
bondage  is  given,  and  such  female  laborers  are  called 
bondagers ;   or  women  who  work  the  bondage. 

Of  course,  where  the  hind  (as  such  yearly  laborer  is 
called)  has  no  daughter  or  sister  competent  to  fulfil  for 
him  this  part  of  his  engagement,  he  has  to  take  his  wife 
to  do  it,  or  hire  a  woman  servant;  and  this,  in  some 
sense  of  the  word,  may  be  a  hardship  to  him;  but,  in  the 
first  place,  this  is  not  very  common;  and  in  the  second, 
the  advantages  of  the  system,  even  with  this  drawback, 
are  unquestionable.  The  wages  of  the  laborer  are  paid 
chiefly  in  the  produce  of  the  farm,  viz  :  in  addition  to  a 
cottage  and  small  garden,  he  has  a  certain  quantity  (as 
per  agreement)  of  wheat,  rye,  barley,  oats,  peas,  beans, 
potatoes,  wool,  &c,  with  about  $20  in  money  during  the 
year,  and  the  keep  of  a  cow.  The  wages  of  the  women 
and  children  are  paid  chiefly  in  money.  This  system 
seems  to  be  the  best  of  any   in  England  for  agricultural 


56       AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS  OF  SUFFOLK,  NORFOLK, 

laborers,  and  is  deserving  of  all  the  commendation  which 
the  practical  farmers  of  Northumberland  unite  in  bestow- 
ing upon  it. 

It  is  pleasant  to  hear  that  the  education  in  Northum- 
berland is  good,  that  the  people  eagerly  seek  to  acquire 
knowledge,  and  that  it  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  a  grown-up 
laborer  who  cannot  read  and  write,  and  who  is  not  capa- 
ble of  keeping  his  own  accounts.  Such  a  state  of  things 
contrasts  favorably  with  the  neglected  condition  of  more 
southern  counties;  and  when  we  are  told  that  this  educa- 
tion is  not  obtained  through  national  schools,  charitable 
institutions,  and  the  like,  but  by  the  exertions  of  the 
peasant  himself,  it  indeed  bespeaks  a  state  of  society 
where  sobriety  is  habitual,  and  intelligence  held  in  high 
estimation. 

There  is  not  much  said  against  the  morality  of  this  dis- 
trict, but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  is  compara- 
tively a  thinly  inhabited  county,  and  that  there  is  no  in- 
ducement for  people  to  come  here  in  search  of  employ- 
ment from  other  parts  of  the  country;  consequently  the 
farms  are  not  crowded  with  the  superfluous  population  of 
large  towns,  like  the  hop-grounds  and  orchards  of  Kent. 

The  question  may  here  be  asked,  are  those  relations 
which  ought  to  subsist  between  the  employer  and  em- 
ployed, honestly  attended  to?  Does  property  discharge 
its  duties  to  those  by  whose  arm  it  is  rendered  productive  ? 
To  this  question  I  regret  to  find  that  all  the  evidence  be- 
fore the  public,  replies  in  the  negative.  Each  district 
exhibits  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  the  neglected  state  of 
the  peasant;  there  is  little  or  no  provision  made  for  the 
proper  education  of  his  children,  and  equally  scanty  at- 
tention is  paid  to  the  fostering  of  sober  and  industrious 
habits.  Instead  of  the  smiling  cottage  garden,  which  we 
naturally  associate  with  our  ideas  of  "  Merrie  England," 
we  are  told  of,  and  see  in  many  places,  miserable  hovels, 


LINCOLN,  YORKSHIRE  AND  NORTHUMBERLAND.  57 

with  accommodation  so  niggardly  allotted,  that  parents, 
sons  and  daughters,  must  eat,  sit  and  sleep  in  one  apart- 
ment !  From  Kent  to  Northumberland,  these  evils  are 
complained  of;  and  if  hovels,  which  would  be  thought 
unfit  housings  for  dogs  and  horses,  are  to  be  the  reward 
of  "industry  embrowned  with  toil,"  we  may  cease  to 
wonder  if  that  industry  should  degenerate  into  careless 
and  improvident  habits,  and  that  the  workhouse,  with  its 
"regulation  diets"  and  "ventilated  halls,"  should  be 
preferred  to  the  cottage  hearth,  and  the  home  of  an  hon- 
orable self-dependence.* 

The  London  Daily  News  of  November  30th,  1846, 
contains  an  account  of  the  Taunton  Agricultural  Society, 
from  which  I  make  the  following  extracts. 

Sir  Alexander  Hood  presided  on  this  occasion,  and 
among  his  supporters  was  Sir  Thomas  Lethbridge ;  whose 
speech  on  proposing  the  health  of  the  chairman,  was  the 
leading  feature  of  the  festival.  The  latter  part  of  this 
truly  admirable  speech  I  give  at  length,  as  it  will  show 
the  reader  that  the  subject  of  insufficient  remuneration 
for  labor,  is  beginning  to  occupy  the  attention  of  all. 
classes. 

The  venerable  baronet  spoke  at  great  length  of  the 
advantages  of  agriculture,  and  then  drew  the  attention  of 
his  hearers  to  the  farm  laborer,  as  follows. 

"  There  is  one  thing  I  wish  to  tell  you.  You  have  gone 
far  enough  in  fattening  stock.  It  strikes  me  that  you  are 
putting  too  much  fat  on  lean  bones.  That  does  no  good 
to  anybody.  We  have  shown  what  we  can  do,  and  you 
can  do  what  you  have  done,  over  and  over  again.  But 
it  is  not  wise  and  profitable  to  do  it.  If  it  takes  away  an 
atom  of  food  from  the  poor,  stop  it.     Breed   as  much  as 

*  Those  persons  who  may  wish  for  further  information  upon  the  subject 
of  agricultural  labor,  may  consult  the  reports  of  the  Government  Commis- 
sioners. 


58   AGRICULTURAL  LABORERS  OF  SUFFOLK,  NORFOLK, 

you  like;  breed  to  the  top  of  the  tree.  Breeding  in  all 
branches  !  (Cheers.)  Go  on  with  your  breeding,  gen- 
tlemen, but  don't  put  too  much  fat  upon  lean  bones.  You 
are  starving  people  by  doing  so.  One  of  my  tenants  told 
me  last  week  that  he  had  two  beautiful  oxen  for  which  he 
has  got  a  prize.  They  were  brought  here  to-day.  They 
were  fed  with  ten  times  as  much  as  they  ought  to  have 
been.  Is  this  wise?  Where  is  your  money?  It  is  not 
in  your  pocket.  It  is  on  the  animal's  back.  One  half 
of  it  will  go  into  the  chandler's  shop,  and  into  the  soap- 
basin.  Who  will  thank  you?  You  have  shown  what 
you  can  do.  See  if  you  cannot  do  something  better.  I 
meant  to  say  a  great  deal  on  the  subject  of  the  laborers, 
but  I  have  not  breath  enough  to  do  it  well.  But  I  must 
say  this,  that  you  and  I  may  take  counsel  together  and 
spend  money;  but  if  you  forget  the  men  whose  labor  gets 
all  for  you,  you  are  acting  ungratefully.  I  therefore,  in 
three  words  say,  '  Raise  your  wages.'  I  have  done  it 
myself,  and  I  tell  all  my  friends  to  do  it.  I  tell  you  all 
to  raise  your  wages,  and  I  tell  you  this — there  never 
was  a  man  in  your  employ  who  ever  struck  a  stroke  for 
his  master,  but  struck  that  stroke  with  redoubled  force 
and  energy  (and  if  he  does  this,  who  profits?)  when  he 
knows  he  is  well  used.  (Cheers.)  How  is  he  used? 
In  Somerset  they  give  what?  (A  voice,  '  They  give  what 
it  is  worth.')  I  guessed  I  should  be  interrupted,  but 
recollect  my  grey  hairs.  Recollect  my  experience. 
Recollect  my  triumphs  in  farming.  Recollect  how  many 
laborers  I  have  employed — how  I  have  lived  among  thern. 
Recollect,  also,  that  though  lower  in  the  scale  than  some 
are,  they  are  men  before  God  as  well  as  yourselves. 
(Cheers.)  Woe  be  to  him  who  will  not  mete  out  to 
others  what  he  wishes  to  have  meted  out  to  himself.  But 
must  you  do  it  if  the  rules  of  political  economy  say  you 
should  not  do  it?     I  say,  '  Avaunt,  political  economy,'  if 


LINCOLN,  YORKSHIRE  AND  NORTHUMBERLAND.  59 

they  say  so.  But,  gentlemen,  the  rules  of  political  econ- 
omy say  no  such  thing.  They  do  not  make  men  brutes. 
They  do  not  seal  up  and  freeze  all  the  finer  feeling  of 
human  nature  of  man  toward  man.  They  have  thrown 
open  the  whole  world  to  competition,  and  I  hope  and  be- 
lieve that  out  of  this  the  best  results  will  come  to  all.  I 
believe  that  those  principles  are  true.  (Cheers.)  So 
far  as  we  have  tried  them,  they  appear  to  be  true.  No 
man  can  predict  what  they  may  do  for  us  in  the  future. 
But  looking,  as  I  have  always  looked,  and  always  do 
look,  I  am  well  convinced,  as  surely  as  I  am  standing  in 
this  room — most  likely  for  the  last  time — (Loud  cries  of 
'No,  no,'  and  vehement  cheering)  I  firmly  believe  we 
are  going  on  in  the  right  path — to  the  path  which  leads 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  landlord,  the  prosperity  of  the 
laborer,  and  to  the  prosperity  of  the  whole  people,  and 
even  more  than  all,  to  permanent  peace;  and  let  me  say, 
God  grant  it  may  be  so,  for  peace  is  the  greatest  blessing 
that  can  flow  to  a  people  like  the  English,  who  are  united 
among  themselves,  and  are  beloved  by  the  whole  world 
because  they  have  made  the  rule  of  right,  their  rule. 
(Cheers.)  Now,  sir,  I  have  one  more  word  to  say,  and 
then  I  will  sit  down.  It  is  this  :  I  shall  offer  a  higher 
reward  if  the  society  will  not,  but  the  society  had  better 
do  it,  not  for  putting  fat  upon  lean  bones,  but  for  putting 
comfort  into  the  cottages  of  the  poor  laborers.  (Cheers.) 
If  you  do  not  encourage  them,  all  your  meetings  here 
are  good  for  nothing.  You  may  as  well  go  home  when 
you  leave  this,  and  say,  ■  Well,  I  have  done  very  little.' 
(Laughter.)  What  I  propose,  is,  to  give  to  the  farmer 
who  from  the  first  day  of  December,  1846,  to  the  first 
day  of  November,  1847,  shall  employ  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  laborers  and  servants,  at  the  highest  rate  of  wages, 
by  the  week  or  month,  and  without  reference  to  the  size 
of  the  farm,  the  sum  of  £15.     ($75.)     (Cheers.)     I  hope 


60  THE    ENGLISH    FACTORY    SYSTEM*, 

the  society  will  do  more  than  it  has  yet  done  for  the  la- 
borer. He  must  be  raised  from  his  present  poverty  and 
degradation,  and  I  call  upon  you  to  do  what  you  can 
towards  accomplishing  that  purpose." 


LETTER   VIII. 

THE    ENGLISH    FACTORY    SYSTEM ITS    EARLY    HISTORY. 

I  wish  it  to  be  distinctly  understood,  that  any  thing  I 
may  advance  in  this  or  other  letters,  has  no  reference  to 
the  factory  system  of  New  England.  Upwards  of  thirty 
years'  experience  and  observation  teaches  me  that  the 
factory  system  of  Old  England  and  that  of  JVeip  England 
are  as  widely  different  in  their  results,  as  the  two  forms 
of  government  under  which  they  are  respectively  carried 
on.  Not  to  enter  into  details  at  present,  I  would  simply 
say  that  the  system  of  Old  England  could  not  exist  in 
New  England;  neither  could  the  New  England  system 
exist  in  Old  England;  the  thing  is  impossible,  so  long  as 
the  systems  of  government  remain  as  they  are.  With 
this  preliminary  observation  I  will  proceed  to  make  some 
extracts  from  printed  documents,  as  the  most  satisfactory 
method  of  showing  the  actual  character  and  consequences 
of  the  English  Factory  System. 

"  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  inquire  how  it  came  to  pass 
originally,  that,  in  England,  always  boasting  of  her  hu- 
manity, laws  were  necessary  in  order  to  protect  little 
children  from  the  cruelties  of  the  manufacturer. 

It  is  well  known  that  Arkwright's  (so  called,  at  least) 
inventions  took  the  manufactures  out  of  the  cottages  and 


ITS    EARLY    HISTORY.  61 

farm-houses  of  England,  where  they  had  been  carried  on 
by  mothers,  or  by  daughters  under  the  mother's  eye, 
and  assembled  them  in  the  counties  of  Derbyshire,  Not- 
tinghamshire, and,  more  particularly,  in  Lancashire, 
where  the  newly  invented  machinery  was  used  in  large 
factories  built  on  the  sides  of  streams,  capable  of  turning 
the  water-wheel.  Thousands  of  hands  were  suddenly 
required  in  these  places,  remote  from  towns;  and  Lan- 
cashire, in  particular,  being  till  then  but  comparatively 
thinly  populated  and  barren,  a  population  was  all  she 
now  wanted.  The  small  and  nimble  fingers  of  little  chil- 
dren being  by  very  far  the  most  in  request,  the  custom 
instantly  sprang  up  of  procuring  apprentices  from  the  dif- 
ferent parish  workhouses  of  London,  Birmingham,  and 
elsewhere.  Many,  many  thousands  of  these  little  hapless 
creatures  were  sent  down  into  the  North,  being  from  the 
age  of  seven,  to  thirteen  or  fourteen  years.  The  custom 
was  for  the  master  to  clothe  his  apprentices,  and  to  feed 
and  lodge  them  in  an  "  apprentice-house  "  near  the  fac- 
tory; overseers  were  appointed  to  see  to  the  works, 
whose  interest  it  was  to  work  the  children  to  the  utmost, 
because  their  pay  was  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  of  work 
done. 

"Cruelty  was,  of  course,  the  consequence;  and  therein 
abundant  evidence  on  record,  and  preserved  in  the  recol- 
lections of  some  who  still  live,  to  show  that  in  many  of 
the  manufacturing  districts,  but  particularly,  I  am  afraid, 
in  the  guilty  county  to  which  I  belong,  cruelties  the  most 
heart-rending  were  practised  upon  the  unoffending  and 
friendless  creatures  who  were  thus  consigned  to  the 
charge  of  master-manufacturers ;  that  they  were  harassed 
to  the  brink  of  death  by  excess  of  labor;  that  they  were 
flogged,  fettered  and  tortured,  in  the  most  exquisite  re- 
finement of  cruelty;  that  they  were,  in  many  cases, 
starved  to  the  bone,  while  flogged  to  their  work,  and  that 
6 


62  THE    ENGLISH    FACTORY    SYSTEM; 

even  in  some  instances,  they  were  driven  to  commit 
suicide  to  evade  the  cruelties  of  a  world,  in  which,  though 
born  so  recently,  their  happiest  moments  had  been  passed 
in  the  garb  and  coercion  of  a  workhouse." 

"The  profits  of  the  manufacturers  were  enormous; 
but  this  only  whetted  the  appetite  that  it  should  have  satis- 
fied, and  therefore  the  manufacturers  had  recourse  to  an 
expedient  that  seemed  to  secure  to  them  those  profits 
without  any  possibility  of  limit;  they  began  the  practice 
of  what  is  termed  "night  working,"  that  is,  having  tired 
out  one  set  of  hands,  by  working  them  through  the  day, 
they  had  another  set  ready  to  go  on  working  through  the 
night;  the  day  set  getting  into  the  beds  that  the  night  set 
had  just  quitted,  and  in  their  turn  again,  the  night  set 
getting  into  the  beds  that  the  day  set  quitted  in  the  morn- 
ing. It  is  a  common  tradition  in  Lancashire,  that  the 
feeds  never  got  cold  /" 

"These  outrages  on  nature,  nature  herself  took  in 
hand;  she  would  not  tolerate  this,  and  accordingly  she 
stepped  forth  with  an  ominous  and  awful  warning — con- 
tagious malignant  fevers  broke  out,  and  began  to  spread 
their  ravages  around;  neighborhoods  became  alarmed, 
correspondences  appeared  in  the  newspapers,  and  a  feel- 
ing of  general  horror  was  excited  when  the  atrocities 
committed  in  those  remote  glens  became  even  partially 
known." 

The  above  is  copied  from  a  work  by  John  Fielden,  Esq. 
M.  P.  for  Oldham,  and  cotton  manufacturer  at  Todmor- 
den,  in  Lancashire. 

My  second  extract  is  taken  from  the  evidence  of  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  (father  of  the  late  prime  minister,)  as  given 
before  Parliament.  Sir  Robert  is  said  to  have  had  more 
parish  apprentices  than  any  one  man  in  England.  He 
thus  speaks  of  them  : 


ITS    EARLY    HISTORY.  63 

M  Having  other  pursuits,  it  was  not  often  in  my  power 
to  visit  factories,  (speaking  of  his  own,)  but  whenever 
such  visits  were  made,  I  was  struck  with  the  uniform 
appearance  of  bad  health,  and,  in  many  cases,  stinted 
growth  of  the  children.  The  hours  of  labor  were  regu- 
lated by  the  interests  of  the  overseer,  whose  remunera- 
tion was  regulated  by  the  quantity  of  work  done." 

He  further  says  : 

•*  Such  indiscriminate  and  unlimited  employment  of  the 
poor,  will  be  attended  with  effects  to  the  rising  generation 
so  serious  and  alarming,  that  I  cannot  contemplate  them 
without  dismay;  and  thus  that  great  effort  of  British  in- 
genuity, whereby  the  machinery  of  our  manufactures  has 
been  brought  to  such  perfection,  instead  of  being  a  bles- 
sing to  the  nation,  will  be  converted  into  the  bitterest 
curse." 

It  will  be  necessary  here  to  state,  that  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  senior,  introduced  a  Bill  into  Parliament  in  the 
year  1802;  and  thus  commenced  the  factory  legislation, 
which  has  been  carried  on  with  very  little  success,  for 
more  than  forty-four  years. 

On  the  3d  of  April,  1816,  Mr.  R.  Gordon  made  the  fol- 
lowing statement  in  the  House  of  Commons  : 

"  It  appears  that  overseers  of  parishes  in  London  are 
in  the  habit  of  contracting  with  the  manufacturers  of  the 
north  for  the  disposal  of  their  children;  and  these  manu- 
facturers agree  to  take  one  idiot  for  every  nineteen  sane 
children.  In  this  manner  wagon  loads  of  these  little 
creatures  are  sent  down  to  be  at  the  perfect  disposal  of 
their  new  masters." 

I  will  take  another  extract  from  the  evidence  of  L. 
Horner,  Esq.,  one  of  the  head  Inspectors  of  factories. 
He  says  : 

"  These  children  were  often  sent  one,  two,  or  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  place  of  their  birth,  separated  for 


64  THE  ENGLISH  FACTORY  SYSTEM. 

life  from  all  relations,  and  deprived  of  the  aid  which  even 
in  their  destitute  situation  they  might  derive  from  friends. " 

He  describes  this  as  "  repugnant  to  humanity,  and  a 
practice  that  had  been  suffered  to  exist  by  the  negligence 
of  the  legislature." 

In  referring  to  the  results  of  this  inhuman  practice,  he 
says, 

"  It  has  been  known  that  with  a  bankrupt's  effects,  a 
gang  (if  he  might  use  the  term)  of  these  children  had  been 
put  up  for  sale,  and  were  advertised  publicly  as  a  part  of  the 
property.  A  most  atrocious  instance  had  come  before  the 
King's  Bench,  in  which  a  number  of  these  children,  ap- 
prenticed by  a  parish  in  London  to  one  manufacturer,  had 
been  transferred  to  another,  and  had  been  found  by  some 
benevolent  persons  in  a  state  of  absolute  famine.  Another 
case,  more  horrible,  had  come  to  his  knowledge,  while 
On  a  committee  of  the  house;  that  an  agreement  had  been 
made  between  a  London  parish  and  a  Lancashire  manu- 
facturer, by  which  it  was  stipulated  that  with  every  twenty 
sound  children,  one  idiot  should  he  taken." 

I  will  conclude  this  letter  by  making  an  extract  from 
the  speech  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  late  prime  minister,  in 
Parliament.  The  speech  does  great  credit  to  Sir  Robert.. 
He  says  : 

11 1  am  one  of  those  who  have  derived  our  fortunes  from 
the  industry  of  the  operative  classes,  and  I  trust  that 
others  who  owe  their  prosperity  to  the  same  cause  will 
feel  as  I  do,  that  it  is  our  duty  to  relieve  the  public,  by 
taking  on  ourselves  the  charge  of  a  just  requital  to  those 
classes  from  whom  our  prosperity  has  sprung." 

I  have  thought  it  necessary,  in  order  to  convince  the 
reader  of  the  truth  of  what  I  have  stated,  (the  facts  being 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  require  the  strongest  testimony)  to 
make  the  above  extracts.  I  have  taken  them  from  the 
writings  of  men  of  the  highest  standing  in  society,  and 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  65 

would  be  very  willing  to  convince  any  one  that  I  have 
not  only  copied  them  correctly,  but  selected  them  with 
an  eye  to  mildness,  rather  than  severity. 


LETTER  IX. 

HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

Dear  Reader — Permit  me  to  introduce  to  your  notice 
an  old  acquaintance  of  mine,  who,  for  the  present,  we 
will  call  Charles  Smith. 

In  my  journeys  through  England  as  a  traveller,  it  was 
my  duty  to  make  occasional  calls  at  Manchester,  the 
chief  seat  of  the  cotton  manufacture;  and  on  one  of  those 
occasions  I  was  introduced  by  a  mutual  friend  to  the  in- 
dividual above  mentioned.  We  became  friends,  and 
during  our  intercourse  he  related  to  me  many  of  the  inci- 
dents of  his  past  life.  The  last  time  I  had  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  him  he  put  into  my  hands  a  parcel  of  documents 
relating  to  his  history,  with  full  permission  to  use  them  at 
my  discretion.  From  these  papers  I  select  the  following 
particulars. 

Charles  Smith  has  no  recollection  whatever  of  his  pa- 
rents; but  from  the  documents  before  us,  it  appears  he 
was  born  in  the  year  1792;  and  was  removed  to  St. 
Pancras  workhouse,  in  the  north-western  suburbs  of  Lon- 
don, in  1796.  Being  then  about  four  years  old,  he  said 
he  perfectly  recollected  riding  in  a  coach  to  the  work- 
house, accompanied  by  some  female.  He  did  not,  how- 
ever, think  this  female  was  his  mother,  for  he  had  not  the 
least  consciousness  of  having  felt  either  sorrow  or  un- 
6* 


66  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

easiness  at  being  separated  from  her,  as  he  naturally 
supposed  he  should,  if  she  had  been  his  mother.  He 
thinks  he  had  been  nursed  by  his  mother,  but  had  passed 
through  many  hands  before  being  taken  to  the  workhouse, 
because  he  had  no  recollection  of  having  experienced  a 
mother's  caresses.  Young  as  he  was,  he  often  inquired 
of  the  nurses  when  the  relations  of  other  children  came 
to  see  his  young  associates,  why  no  one  came  to  see  him, 
and  used  to  weep,  when  he  was  told,  that  no  one  had  ever 
owned  him,  after  his  being  placed  in  that  house.  It  was 
supposed  that  he  was  an  illegitimate  child,  that  his  father 
moved  in  the  upper  circle  of  society,  and  that  his  mother 
had  died,  probably  from  grief  and  disappointment,  pre- 
vious to  his  removal  to  the  workhouse.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  it  is  certain  that  when  he  applied,  (after  he  arrived 
at  manhood)  to  the  parish  officers  of  St.  Pancras  for  in- 
formation concerning  his  parents,  they  refused  to  give 
him  any  account  of  them. 

The  sad  consciousness  that  he  stood  alone  in  the  world, 
that  he  had  no  acknowledged  claim  of  kindred  with  any 
human  being,  rich  or  poor,  so  constantly  occupied  his 
thoughts,  that,  together  with  his  sufferings,  they  imprinted 
a  pensive  character  on  his  features,  which  probably 
neither  change  of  fortune,  nor  time  itself,  will  ever  en- 
tirely obliterate.  He  well  remembers,  when  about  six 
years  old,  as  the  children  were  repeating  their  catechism, 
it  was  his  turn  to  repeat  the  fifth  commandment;  and  as 
he  was  saying  M  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,"  &c, 
he  burst  into  tears,  and  felt  greatly  distressed.  Being 
asked  why  he  cried,  he  innocently  replied,  "I  cry  be- 
cause I  cannot  obey  God's  commandments;  I  know  not 
either  my  father  or  my  mother." 

Smith  acknowledges  he  was  well  fed,  decently  clad, 
and  comfortably  lodged,  and  not  at  all  over-worked;  yet 
with  all  these  blessings,  this  destitute   child  grew  melan- 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  67 

choly.  He  relished  none  of  the  humble  comforts  he  en- 
joyed. It  was  liberty  he  wanted.  The  busy  world  lay 
outside  the  workhouse  gates,  and  those  he  was  seldom 
permitted  to  pass.  He  was  too  young  to  understand  the 
necessity  of  the  restraint  to  which  he  was  subjected. 
Like  a  bird  newly  caged,  that  nutters  from  side  to  side, 
and  beats  its  little  wings  against  its  prison  walls,  in  hope 
of  obtaining  its  liberty;  so  young  Smith,  weary  of  con- 
finement, and  anxious  to  be  free,  often  watched  the  gates 
of  the  house,  in  the  vain  hope  that  some  favorable  oppor- 
tunity might  facilitate  his  escape.  He  was  so  weary  of 
confinement,  he  said  he  would  gladly  have  exchanged 
situations  with  the  poorest  of  the  poor  children,  whom, 
from  the  upper  windows  of  the  workhouse,  he  had  seen 
begging  from  door  to  door,  or  offering  matches  for  sale 
to  the  people  as  they  passed. 

From  this  state  of  mind,  Smith  was  suddenly  diverted, 
by  a  rumor  that  a  day  was  appointed,  when  the  master 
chimney-sweepers  of  the  metropolis  were  to  come  and 
select  such  a  number  of  boys  as  apprentices  till  the  age 
of  twenty-one,  as  they  might  deem  it  necessary  to  take 
into  their  fraternity.  These  tidings  sounded  like  music 
to  the  ears  of  Smith  he  anxiously  inquired  of  the  nurses 
if  the  news  were  true,  and  if  so,  what  chance  there  was 
of  his  being  one  of  the  elect.  The  matrons  told  him  that 
if  he  was  elected  he  would  bitterly  rue  the  day  that  should 
consign  him  to  that  wretched  employment.  Still  he  was 
not  satisfied  that  it  could  be  worse  than  the  state  in  which 
he  then  was. 

The  day  arrived,  the  boys  were  brought  forth;  many 
of  them  in  tears,  and  very  sorrowful.  Smith  might  be 
said  to  be  the  most  joyous  of  the  whole,  and  as  the  grim 
looking  men  approached  him,  he  held  his  head  as  high 
as  he  could,  and  endeavored  to  attract  their  attention. 
Boy  after  boy  was  taken  in  preference  to  Smith,  who  was 


68  HISTORY    OP    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

often  handled,  examined  and  rejected.  Some  of  the 
sweeps  complimented  him  for  his  spirit,  and  said,  if  he 
made  a  good  use  of  his  time,  and  contrived  to  grow  a 
head  taller,  he  might  do  for  them  the  next  time  they  came. 

The  confinement  that  was  so  wearisome  to  young 
Smith  must  have  been  equally  irksome  to  his  compan- 
ions, therefore  the  love  of  liberty  could  not  have  been 
the  sole  cause  of  the  difference  of  feeling  manifested  by 
these  boys  on  this  occasion.  There  was  another  reason; 
most  of  the  boys  had  friends  or  relations,  but  poor  Smith 
stood  alone  !  No  ties  of  consanguinity  bound  him  to  any 
particular  portion  of  society,  or  to  any  place ;  he  had  no 
friend  to  soothe  his  troubled  mind — no  domestic  circle  to 
which,  though  excluded  for  a  time,  he  might  hope  to  be 
reunited.  When  the  friends  or  relatives  of  other  chil- 
dren came  to  visit  them,  the  caresses  that  were  sometimes 
exchanged,  the  joy  that  beamed  on  the  faces  of  the  fa- 
vored ones,  were  any  thing  but  pleasing  to  our  young 
friend;  not  that  he  was  envious  of  their  happiness,  but 
that  it  reminded  him  more  forcibly  of  his  forlorn  condi- 
tion. 

From  the  period  of  Smith's  disappointment  in  being 
rejected  by  the  sweeps,  a  sudden  calm  succeeded,  which 
lasted  till  another  rumor  was  spread  through  the  house, 
that  a  treaty  was  on  foot  between  the  Overseers  of  St. 
Pancras,  and  the  owners  of  a  large  cotton  factory,  for 
the  disposal  of  a  great  number  of  children.  This  oc- 
curred about  a  year  after  the  chimney-sweep  disappoint- 
ment. 

The  rumor  itself  inspired  Smith  with  new  hopes;  and 
when  he  found  that  it  was  not  only  confirmed,  but  that 
the  number  wanted  was  so  great,  that  it  would  take  off 
most  of  the  children  in  the  house,  his  joy  became  un- 
bounded. Poor,  infatuated  boy  !  delighted  with  the  hope 
of  obtaining  a  greater  degree  of  liberty,  he  dreamed  not 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  69 

of  the  misery  that  impended,  in  the  midst  of  which  he  af- 
terwards looked  back  to  St.  Pancras  as  to  an  elysium. 

Prior  to  the  show  day  of  the  pauper  children  to  the 
cotton  manufacturer,  the  most  illusive  and  artfully  con- 
trived stories  were  spread,  to  fill  the  minds  of  these  poor 
infants  with  the  most  absurd  and  ridiculous  errors,  as  to 
the  real  nature  of  the  servitude  to  which  they  were  to  be 
consigned.  From  the  statement  of  the  victims  to  this 
bondage,  it  seems  to  have  been  a  constant  rule  with 
those  who  had  the  disposal  of  parish  children,  before 
sending  them  off  to  the  cotton  mills,  to  fill  their  minds 
with  the  same  delusion.  Their  hopes  being  thus  excited, 
it  was  next  stated  to  these  innocent  victims,  that  no  one 
could  be  compelled  to  go,  nor  any  but  volunteers  accepted. 

When  it  was  supposed  that  these  excitements  had  ope- 
rated to  induce  a  ready  acquiescence  in  the  proposed  mi- 
gration, all  the  children,  male  and  female,  who  were,  or 
appeared  to  be,  seven  years  old,  were  assembled  in  the 
committee  room  for  the  purpose  of  being  examined,  touch- 
ing their  health,  capacity  and  willingness  to  go  and  serve 
as  apprentices  in  the  way  and  manner  required,  for  the 
term  of  fourteen  years. 

The  boys  were  to  be  instructed  in  cotton  spinning  and 
stocking  weaving;  the  girls  in  cotton  spinning  and  lace 
making.  There  was  no  specification  whatever,  as  to  the 
time  their  masters  were  to  be  allowed  to  work  these 
poor  children,  although  at  this  period,  great  cruelties 
were  known  to  be  exercised  by  the  owners  of  cotton  mills 
upon  their  apprentices. 

Thus  did  the  church-wardens  and  overseers  of  the  poor 
of  St.  Pancras  parish  in  the  month  of  August,  1799,  make 
over  to  Messrs.  Lambert's,  cotton  spinners,  hosiers  and 
lace  men,  of  St.  Mary's  parish,  Nottingham,  our  young 
orphan  boy,  together  with  seventy-nine  other  boys  and 


70  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

girls  as  parish  apprentices,  till  they  arrived  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one  years. 

The  poor  deluded  young  creatures  were  so  inflated 
with  joy  that  they  began  to  treat  their  old  nurses  with  in- 
solence, and  refused  to  associate  with  children,  who, 
from  sickness,  or  being  under  age,  had  not  been  accept- 
ed. But  their  illusion  soon  vanished,  and  they  were  soon 
made  to  endure  hardships  such  as  they  had  never  con- 
ceived of. 

Happy,  no  doubt,  in  the  thought  of  transferring  the 
burden  of  the  further  support  of  eighty  young  paupers  to 
other  parishes,  the  church-wardens  and  overseers  distin- 
guished the  departure  of  this  juvenile  colony  by  acts  of 
munificence.  The  children  were  completely  new  clothed; 
each  had  two  suits,  one  for  working,  and  another  for 
their  holiday  dress.  One  shilling  in  money  was  given  to 
each  child,  a  new  pocket  handkerchief,  and  a  large  piece 
of  gingerbread. 

According  to  his  own  account,  Smith  was  first  to  the 
gate.  Having  no  relatives  to  take  leave  of,  all  his  anx- 
iety was  to  get  outside.  He  was  also  the  first  to  mount 
the  wagon,  and  the  loudest  in  his  cheering.  The  whole 
convoy  were  well  guarded  by  the  parish  beadles  in  their 
robes  of  office,  and  bearing  staves,  on  their  way  to  the 
wagons  that  were  to  carry  them  to  their  destination ;  but 
these  officers  the  children  were  taught  to  consider  as  a 
guard  of  honor. 

Some  active  young  men  were  appointed  to  look  after 
the  passengers  in  the  two  large  wagons,  on  their  journey 
to  Nottingham.  Those  vehicles  were  so  secured  that 
when  once  the  grated  doors  were  locked,  no  one  could 
escape.  Plenty  of  clean  straw  was  put  in  for  the  children 
to  sleep  on,  but  they  soon  began  throwing  it  over  one 
another,  and  seemed  delighted  with  the  commencement 
of  their  journey.     A  few  hours  progress   considerably 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  71 

damped  this  exultation.  The  inequality  of  the  road,  and 
the  heavy  jolts  of  the  wagon,  occasioned  them  many  a 
bruise.  Although  it  was  in  the  middle  of  August,  the 
children  felt  very  uncomfortable  in  being  thus  cooped  up 
in  so  small  a  space,  (forty  in  each  wagon,)  and  having 
no  liberty  except  to  look  through  the  gratings  of  their 
prison,  like  so  many  wild  animals  on  their  way  to  an  ex- 
hibition. After  having  passed  one  night  in  the  wagon, 
many  of  the  children  began  to  repent,  and  express  a  wish 
to  return.  They  were  told  to  have  a  little  patience  till 
they  arrived  at  Messrs.  Lamberts,  when  no  doubt  those 
gentlemen  would  pay  every  attention  to  their  wishes. 
Smith  was  so  overjoyed  with  his  prospects,  that  he  spent 
his  shilling  at  Leicester,  in  apples.  The  greater  part  of 
the  children  were  much  exhausted,  and  many  of  them 
seriously  indisposed  before  they  arrived  at  Nottingham. 

After  having  been  well  refreshed,  the  whole  of  the 
children  were  drawn  up  in  rows  to  be  reviewed  by  their 
masters,  their  friends  and  neighbors.  In  Smith's  estima- 
tion, the  Messrs.  Lamberts  were  "stately  sort  of  men." 
They  looked  over  the  children,  and  finding  them  all  right 
according  to  invoice,  exhorted  them  to  behave  with  proper 
humility  and  decorum  ;  to  pay  the  most  prompt  and 
submissive  respect  to  the  orders  of  those  who  would  be 
appointed  to  instruct  and  superintend  them  at  the  mills; 
and  to  be  diligent  and  careful,  each  one  to  execute  his  or 
her  task,  and  thereby  avoid  the  punishment  and  disgrace 
which  awaited  idleness,  insolence,  or  disobedience. 

This  harangue,  which  was  delivered  to  them  in  a  se- 
vere and  dictatorial  tone,  increased  the  apprehensions  of 
the  children,  but  not  one  durst  open  his  mouth  to  com- 
plain. The  masters  talked  to  them  of  the  various  sorts 
of  labor  to  which  they  were  to  apply  themselves;  but  to 
the  consternation  of  Smith  and  his  associates,  not  the 
least  allusion  was  made  to  the   many  fine  things  which 


72  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

had  so  positively  been  promised  them  while  in  London. 
This  conversation  seemed  to  look  forward  to  close,  pro- 
tracted toil. 

The  children  rested  one  night  at  Nottingham,  in  the 
warehouse  of  their  new  masters;  the  next  day,  in  order 
to  cheer  their  spirits  a  little,  they  were  led  out  to  see  the 
local  curiosities,  which  are  so  celebrated  by  bards  of  an- 
cient times.  The  day  following,  they  were  conveyed  in 
carts  to  the  place  that  was  to  be  their  home  for  the  next 
fourteen  years.  This  place  was  Lowdham  cotton  mill, 
situated  near  a  village  of  that  name  about  ten  miles  from 
Nottingham,  on  the  Surhill  road.  They  arrived  rather 
late  in  the  evening. 

The  mill,  a  large  and  lofty  edifice,  being  surmounted 
by  a  cupola,  Smith  at  first  mistook  for  a  church,  and  ex- 
pressed his  opinion  to  that  effect;  this  seemed  to  please 
some  of  the  bystanders,  who  said  he  would  soon  know 
what  sort  of  service  was  performed  there.  There  was 
one  source  of  consolation,  he  thought — it  is  not  surrounded 
with  large  walls  and  strong  gates,  like  the  St.  Pancras 
workhouse. 

When  the  first  cart,  in  which  was  young  Smith,  drove 
up  to  the  door  of  the  apprentice-house,  which  was  half  a 
mile  distant  from  the  mill,  a  number  of  villagers  flocked 
round  to  see  the  young  cocknies.  One  old  woman  said, 
"Eh  !  what  a  fine  collection  of  children,  see  their  pretty 
rosy  cheeks."  Another,  shaking  her  head,  said,  "The 
roses  will  soon  be  out  of  bloom  in  the  mill."  "  The  Lord 
have  mercy  upon  them,"  said  a  third.  "  They'll  find  no 
mercy  here,"  said  a  fourth.  In  common  with  his  com- 
rades, Smith  was  greatly  dismayed  by  these  gloomy  prog- 
nostications, which  their  guardians  did  all  they  could  to 
check,  or  prevent  the  children  hearing,  hurrying  them  as 
rapidly  as  they  could  into  the  house. 

The  young  strangers  were  conducted  into  a  spacious 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  73 

room,  fitted  up  in  the  workhouse  style,  with  long,  nar- 
row deal  tables,  and  wood  benches  for  seats  on  each 
side.  The  room  seemed  tolerably  clean;  but  there  was 
a  rank,  oily  smell,  which  Smith  did  not  much  admire. 
They  were  ordered  to  sit  down  at  these  tables,  the  boys 
and  girls  apart.  The  other  apprentices  had  not  left  work 
when  these  children  arrived.  The  supper  set  before 
them  consisted  of  milk-porridge,  (i.  e.  oat-meal  boiled  in 
milk  and  water)  and  rye  bread,  very  black  and  soft. 
Smith  says  it  stuck  to  their  teeth  like  bird-lime.  As  the 
young  strangers  gazed  mournfully  at  each  other,  the  gov- 
ernor and  governess,  as  the  master  and  mistress  of  the 
apprentices  were  styled,  kept  walking  round  them  and 
making  very  coarse  remarks.  The  governor  was  a  huge, 
raw-boned  man,  who  had  served  in  the  army,  and  had 
been  a  drill  sergeant.  Unexpectedly,  he  produced  a 
large  horsewhip,  which  he  clanged  in  such  a  manner 
that  it  made  the  house  re-echo.  In  a  moment  the  chil- 
dren, who  had  been  laughing  and  joking  about  the  bread, 
&c,  were  reduced  to  the  most  solemn  silence  and  sub- 
mission. Even  young  Smith,  who  had  been  one  of  the 
ringleaders  in  these  proceedings,  was  bereft  of  all  his 
gaiety  by  the  tremendous  clang  of  the  whip,  and  sat  as 
demure  as  a  truant  scholar,  just  previous  to  his  flogging; 
yet  the  master  of  the  house  had  not  uttered  a  single 
threat,  nor,  indeed,  had  he  occasion,  his  stern  and  forbid- 
ding aspect,  and  his  terrible  horsewhip  inspired  quite  as 
much  terror  as  was  requisite.  Knowing  that  the  appren- 
tices from  the  mill  were  coming,  this  formidable  being 
retired,  to  the  great  relief  of  the  young  strangers;  but  so 
deep  an  impression  had  he  created,  that  they  sat  erect, 
scarcely  daring  to  look  on  one  side  or  the  other. 

While  they  were  in  this  subdued  state,  their  attention 
was  suddenly   attracted  by  the  loud  shouting   of  many 
voices;   almost  instantly  the  stone  room  filled  with  araul- 
7 


74  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

titude  of  young  persons  of  both  sexes,  from  young  women 
down  to  mere  children.  Their  presence  was  accompa- 
nied by  a  scent  of  no  very  agreeable  nature,  arising  from 
the  grease  and  dirt  acquired  in  the  avocation.  The  boys, 
generally  speaking,  had  nothing  on  but  a  shirt  and  trow- 
sers.  Some  few,  and  but  a  few,  had  jackets  and  hats. 
Their  coarse  shirts  were  open  at  the  neck,  and  their  hair 
looked  as  if  a  comb  had  seldom  been  applied.  The  girls 
were  destitute  of  shoes  and  stockings,  their  locks  pinned 
up,  they  wore  no  caps,  few  had  gowns,  the  principal  ar- 
ticle of  dress  being  long  aprons  with  sleeves,  made  of 
coarse  linen,  that  reached  from  the  neck  to  the  heels. 
Smith  and  his  companions  were  almost  terrified  by  the 
sight  ofthe  pale,  lean,  sallow  looking  multitude  before 
them. 

On  their  first  entrance,  some  of  the  old  apprentices 
took  a  view  of  the  strangers;  but  the  great  bulk  first 
looked  after  their  supper,  which  consisted  of  boiled  pota- 
toes, distributed  at  a  hatch-door,  that  opened  into  the 
common  room  from  the  kitchen.  At  a  signal  given,  the 
apprentices  rushed  to  this  door,  and  each,  as  he  received 
his  or  her  portion,  withdrew  to  the  table. 

Smith,  who  had  always  been  accustomed  to  cleanliness, 
was  much  surprised  to  see  the  girls  hold  up  their  greasy 
aprons  in  which  to  receive  their  supper,  and  the  boys  re- 
sorted to  acts  even  more  filthy  and  indecent,  when  re- 
ceiving the  hot  boiled  potatoes  allotted  them.  With  a 
keen  appetite  the  hungry  apprentices  devoured  their  sup- 
per, and  seemed  anxiously  to  look  about  for  more.  Next, 
the  hungry  crew  ran  to  the  table  of  the  new  comers,  and 
voraciously  devoured  every  crust  of  bread,  and  every 
drop  of  porridge  they  had  left ;  after  which  they  put  and 
answered  questions  as  occasion  required.  There  was  no 
cloth  on  the  table,  no  plates,  knives  or  forks;  a  little  salt 
scattered  here  and  there,  with  a  plentiful  supply  of  cold 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  75 

water,  made  up  the  usual  accompaniments  of  the  supper 
table. 

The  supper  being  devoured,  in  the  midst  of  the  gossip- 
ing that  ensued,  (for  many  of  the  old  apprentices  had 
come  from  the  same  parish,  and  were  anxious  to  hear 
from  their  old  nurses)  the  bell  rang  that  gave  the  signal 
to  go  to  bed. 

The  grim  governor  entered  to  take  the  charge  of  the 
newly  arrived  boys,  and  his  wife,  acting  the  same  part 
by  the  girls,  appeared  every  way  suitable  to  so  rough 
and  unpolished  a  mate.  She  was  a  large,  robust  woman, 
remarkable  for  a  rough,  hoarse  voice  and  ferocious  as- 
pect. In  a  surly,  heart-chilling  tone,  she  bade  the  girls 
follow  her.  Tremblingly  the  little  creatures  obeyed, 
scarcely  daring  to  cast  a  look  at  their  fellow  travellers, 
or  bid  them  good  night.  They  separated  in  mournful  si- 
lence, the  tears  trickling  down  their  cheeks;  not  a  sigh 
was  heard,  or  a  word  of  complaint  uttered. 

The  room  in  which  Smith  and  several  of  his  compan- 
ions were  deposited  was  up  two  pair  of  stairs.  The  bed 
places  were  a  sort  of  cribs,  built  in  a  double  tier  all 
round  the  chamber.  The  apprentices  slept  two  in  a  bed. 
The  beds  were  of  flocks.  From  the  quantity  of  oil  im- 
bibed in  the  apprentices'  cloths,  and  the  impurities  that 
were  suffered  to  accumulate  from  the  cotton,  a  most  dis- 
agreeable odor  scented  these  rooms.  The  governor 
called  the  strangers  to  him  and  allotted  to  each  his  bed 
place  and  bed-fellow,  not  allowing  any  of  the  newly  ar- 
rived inmates  to  sleep  together. 

The  boy  with  whom  Smith  was  to  chum,  got  into  his 
berth,  and  without  saying  a  prayer  or  any  thing  else,  was 
soon  fast  asleep.  It  was  not  so,  however,  with  our  young 
friend;  he  could  not  refrain  from  tears;  he  felt,  young  as 
he  was,  that  he  had  been  grossly  deceived.  When  he 
crept  into  bed,  the  stench  of  the  oily  cloths  and  the  greasy 


76  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

skin  of  his  sleeping  comrade  almost  turned  his  stomach. 
Over  and  over  again  the  poor  child  repeated  every  prayer 
he  had  learned,  and  strove  to  recommend  himself  to 
the  Father  of  the  fatherless.  At  last,  sleep  did  seal  his 
weary  eyelids;  but  short  was  the  repose  he  was  allowed 
to  enjoy.  Before  5  o'clock  he  was  awaked  by  his  bed- 
fellow, who  springing  upright  at  the  loud  tolling  of  the 
factory  bell,  told  Smith  to  dress  with  all  speed,  or  the 
governor  would  flog  him.  Before  Smith  had  time  to  per- 
form this  office,  the  iron  door  of  the  chamber,  creaking 
upon  its  hinges,  was  opened,  and  in  came  the  terrific 
governor  with  the  horsewhip  in  his  hand;  at  the  sight  of 
him  every  boy  hastily  turned  out  of  his  crib,  and  huddled 
on  his  clothes  in  haste. 

Smith  and  his  fellow-travellers  were  slowest,  not  being 
rightly  awake.  He  said  to  one  of  the  boys,  "Bless  me, 
have  you  church  service  so  soon  ?  "  "  Church  service, 
you  fool,"  was  the  angry  answer,  "it  is  to  the  mill  ser- 
vice you  are  called,  and  you  had  better  look  sharp  or 
you'll  catch  it."  The  governor,  bearing  the  emblem  of 
arbitrary  rule  in  his  hand,  walked  around  the  chamber, 
looking  in  every  bed  place,  amusing  himself  the  while 
with  cracking  the  huge  whip,  which  fully  understanding, 
the  boys  hastened  below.  Arrived  there>  they  saw  some 
of  the  boys  washing  themselves  at  a  pump,  and  they  were 
directed  to  do  the  same;  after  which,  the  whole  multitude 
sat  down  to  a  breakfast  at  5  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The 
meal  consisted  of  a  scanty  supply  of  black  bread  and 
milk  porridge. 

They  reached  the  mill  about  half  past  5  o'clock;  the 
machinery  was  going  in  all  the  rooms  from  top  to  bottom. 
Smith  and  his  companions  were  astonished  at  the  bur- 
ring noise  which  proceeded  from  20,000  wheels  and  spin- 
dles in  motion,  and  many  of  them  began  to  feel  sickly 
from  the  rank  smell  of  oil  which  bathed  the  machinery. 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  77 

The  new  hands  were  received  by  Mr.  Baker,  the  head 
manager,  in  a  large  room.  They  were  then  divided  into 
separate  divisions.  The  overlookers  were  then  ordered 
to  take  the  division  each  had  assigned  him.  In  this  man- 
ner they  were  marched  off  to  the  different  rooms,  and 
immediately  set  to  their  work.  All  this  was  done  amid 
the  laughs,  jokes,  and  coarse  remarks  of  the  overlook- 
ers, at  the  expense  of  the  poor  children. 

The  task  first  allotted  to  Smith  was  to  pick  up  the  loose 
cotton  that  fell  upon  the  floor.  Apparently  nothing  could 
be  easier,  and  he  set  to  with  diligence,  although  much 
terrified  by  the  whirling  motion  and  noise  of  the  machine- 
ry, and  not  a  little  affected  by  the  dust  and  flue  with 
which  he  was  half  suffocated.  He  soon  felt  sick,  and  by 
constant  stooping,  his  back  ached;  he  therefore  took  the 
liberty  to  sit  down;  but  this  attitude,  he  soon  found  was 
strictly  forbidden  in  cotton  mills.  His  task-master  gave 
him  to  understand  that  he  must  keep  on  his  legs.  He  did 
so  till  twelve  o'clock,  being  six  and  a  half  hours  without 
intermission.  The  poor  boy  suffered  much  from  thirst  and 
hunger.  The  moment  the  bell  rang  for  dinner,  all  were 
in  motion  to  get  out  as  soon  as  possible.  Never  before 
did  he  enjoy  the  fresh  air  so  much  as  now. 

He  had  been  sick  almost  to  fainting,  and  it  revived 
him  instantly.  The  cocknies  mingled  together  on  their 
way,  to  communicate  to  each  other  their  sad  experience. 
When  they  arrived  at  the  dinner  room,  each  had  his 
place  assigned  him. 

During  the  first  ten  days  Smith  was  kept  picking  up 
cotton;  he  felt  at  night  very  great  weariness,  pain  in  the 
back  and  ankles,  and  he  heard  similar  complaints  from 
his  associates.  After  this  he  was  promoted  to  the  em- 
ployment of  a  roving-winder,  and  being  too  short  of  stat- 
ure to  reach  his  work,  he  had  to  stand  on  a  block  of 
wood;  but  even  with  this  help  he  could  not  keep  pace 
7* 


78  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

with  the  machinery.  In  vain  the  poor  child  declared  he 
could  not  move  quicker.  He  was  beaten  by  his  over- 
looker with  great  severity,  until,  in  a  short  time,  his  body 
was  discolored  by  bruises.  In  common  with  his  fellow 
apprentices,  Smith  was  wholly  dependent  upon  the  mercy 
of  the  overlookers,  whom  he  found  to  be,  generally  speak- 
ing, a  set  of  brutal,  illiterate  men;  void  alike  of  under- 
standing or  humanity.  Smith  complained  to  the  mana- 
ger, who  said,  "do  your  work  well,  and  you'll  not  be 
beaten." 

It  will  be  necessary  to  state  here,  that  the  overlookers 
had  a  certain  quantity  of  work  to  perform  in  a  given  time. 
If  every  child  did  not  perform  its  allotted  task,  the  fault 
was  imputed  to  the  overlooker,  and  he  was  discharged. 
On  the  other  hand  a  per  centage  was  given  to  the  over- 
looker, upon  all  work  done  more  than  the  stipulated  task. 
If,  therefore,  any  complaint  was  made,  the  overlooker 
could  have  said,  that  if  the  owners  insisted  upon  so  much 
work  being  extracted  from  the  apprentices,  and  a  greater 
quantity  of  yarn  produced  than  it  was  possible  to  effect 
by  fair  and  moderate  labor,  they  must  allow  them  severity 
of  punishment,  to  keep  the  children  in  a  state  of  continual 
exertion.  Each  of  the  task-masters,  in  order  to  acquire 
favor  and  emolument,  urged  the  poor  children  to  the  very 
utmost. 

At  the  expiration  of  six  months,  being  half  starved,  and 
cruelly  treated  by  his  task-master,  Smith  resolved  to  at- 
tempt an  escape,  to  beg  his  way  up  to  London,  and  lay 
his  case  before  the  officers  of  St.  Pancras.  In  this  at- 
tempt he  could  not  get  any  of  his  companions  to  join  him; 
he  therefore  determined  to  go  alone.  Steady  to  his  pur- 
pose, he  took  the  first  favorable  opportunity,  and  when 
the  overlooker  and  manager  were  busy,  he  started  off  in 
his  working  clothes  unperceived. 

He  began  at  a  smart  trot,  looking  behind  him  every 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  79 

50  or  100  yards  the  first  half  mile;  but  finding  he  was 
not  pursued,  he  slackened  his  pace.  He  continued  to 
proceed  as  fast  as  he  was  able,  not  knowing  whether  he 
was  on  the  right  road  to  London,  and  being  afraid  to  ask 
till  he  came  to  a  village  a  few  miles  from  the  mill,  where 
he  was  stopped  by  a  man  in  the  employ  of  his  master. 
This  person,  it  appears,  had  a  commission  from  the  mill 
owners,  and  according  to  agreement,  was  to  receive  five 
shillings  for  every  runaway  apprentice  he  caught  and 
took  back  to  the  mill.  Back  poor  Smith  was  taken,  pun- 
ished, and  jeered  at  by  his  task-master,  and  worked  with 
an  increased  severity.  The  poor  children  pitied  him, 
but  could  afford  him  no  assistance. 

Their  condolements,  however,  were  grateful  to  his 
wounded  pride  and  disappointed  hopes.  As  he  retired 
to  his  miserable  bed,  the  governor,  grinning,  made  him 
a  low  bow  in  the  military  style,  and  gave  him  a  kick  at 
the  same  instant.  This  afforded  amusement  to  that  por- 
tion of  the  elder  apprentices  who  had  made  similar  at- 
tempts and  failed. 

Many  of  these  children  had  by  this  time  been  more  or 
less  injured  by  the  machinery,  several  had  the  skin 
scraped  off  their  knuckles,  others  had  their  fingers 
crushed,  or  taken  off ;  young  Smith,  soon  after  his  at- 
tempted escape,  lost  the  fore  finger  of  his  left  hand.  One 
poor  girl  had  been  caught  by  the  main  shaft,  and  was  so 
dreadfully  maimed  and  mutilated  as  to  be  obliged  to  walk 
on  crutches  the  remainder  of  her  life,  yet  without  having 
the  power  of  getting  any  compensation  or  redress. 

Many  of  the  older  boys  were  so  oppressed  with  hunger, 
that  they  sallied  out  at  night  to  plunder  the  fields;  and 
declared  their  intention  to  do  some  crime,  to  get  them- 
selves transported,  in  order  to  be  freed  from  their  cruel 
task-masters. 

When  Smith  had  been  four  years  with  his  masters, 


80  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

they  gave  up  the  business,  from  what  cause  is  not  known 
to  me. 

There  was  at  this  time  a  mill  owner  in  one  of  the  villa- 
ges of  Derbyshire,  of  the  name  of  Needham.  Like  many 
of  his  class,  he  had  risen  from  a  state  of  abject  poverty, 
and  had  it  been  by  honorable  industry,  his  prosperous 
fortune  would  have  redounded  to  his  credit.  Of  his  ori- 
ginal state  of  poverty  it  was  his  weakness  to  be  ashamed. 
By  the  profusion  of  his  table,  and  the  splendor  and  fre- 
quency of  his  entertainments,  he  seemed  to  wish  to  cover 
and  conceal  his  mean  descent.  His  house,  lawns,  equi- 
page, and  style  of  living,  completely  eclipsed  the  neigh- 
boring gentry;  yet,  boundless  as  was  his  ostentation,  he 
was  in  his  heart  sordidly  mean;  which  was  sufficiently 
evinced  by  his  cruelty,  in  wringing  from  poor,  friendless 
orphans,  the  means  of  supporting  his  unbecoming  pomp. 
His  mansion  was  at  Higbgate  Wall,  near  Buxton. 

To  this  unfeeling  master,  Messrs.  Lamberts  made 
over  the  unexpired  term  of  years,  for  which  the  parish 
apprentices  had  been  bound  by  their  respective  inden- 
tures. What  premium  was  paid,  or  if  any,  I  know  not; 
but  as  this  man  was  neither  a  hosier,  nor  a  lace  manufac- 
turer, he  had  not  the  power  to  fulfil  the  conditions,  of  in- 
structing the  children  in  lace-knitting  and  stocking  weav- 
ing. The  consequence  was  that  they  lost  the  most  im- 
portant advantages  of  their  servitude;  and  those  who 
survived  their  term  of  apprenticeship,  found  themselves 
without  that  degree  of  skill  which  was  requisite  to  enable 
them  to  gain  their  bread. 

Mr.  Needham  went  to  Loudham  to  inspect  the  children, 
and  was  very  liberal  in  his  promises  of  kind  treatment. 
The  whole  lot,  male  and  female,  to  the  amount  of  many 
scores,  were  then  removed  in  carts  from  Lowdham  to 
Litton  mill.  The  first  day's  progress  brought  them  to 
Cromford,  where  they  halted  for  the  night.     The   girls 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  81 

were  lodged  in  dwelling  houses,  the  boys  slept  on  straw 
in  a  barn  and  stable  !  The  next  morning  the  whole  party 
were  marched  on  foot  through  the  village.  Then  they 
again  mounted  their  carts.  It  was  in  the  month  of  No- 
vember when  this  removal  took  place.  On  the  evening 
of  the  second  day's  journey,  the  devoted  children  reached 
the  mill. 

This  was  situated  at  the  bottom  of  a  sequestered  glen, 
surrounded  by  rugged  rocks,  and  remote  from  any  human 
habitation.  In  this  place  where  our  young  friend  spent 
the  next  ten  years  of  his  life,  many  of  these  poor  children 
were  hurried  to  an  untimely  grave. 

The  appearance  of  the  apprentices  who  were  at  work 
in  the  mill  when  the  new  hands  arrived,  was  any  thing 
but  pleasing.  The  pallid,  sickly  complexions,  the  filthy 
and  ragged  condition  of  their  clothing,  gave  a  sorrowful 
foretaste  of  what  apparently  awaited  him.  From  the  mill 
they  were  escorted  to  the  apprentice  house,  where  every 
thing  wore  a  discouraging  aspect.  The  lodging  room, 
the  bedding,  &c,  all  betokened  a  want  of  cleanliness  and 
comfort. 

Smith  passed  a  restless  night,  bitterly  deploring  his 
hard  destiny,  and  trembling  at  the  thought  of  greater  suf- 
ferings. Soon  after  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  they 
were  summoned  to  work  by  the  ringing  of  a  bell.  The 
breakfast  hour  was  eight  o'clock;  but  the  machinery  did 
not  stop,  they  got  it  as  best  they  could,  now  a  bit  and 
then  a  sup,  all  the  time  doing  their  work. 

Forty  minutes  were  allowed  for  dinner,  a  part  of  this 
time  being  required  for  cleaning  the  machinery.  The 
number  of  the  working  hours  at  this  mill  was  from  four- 
teen to  sixteen  per  day.  The  children  suffered  severely 
from  this  unnatural  state  of  things.  From  all  these 
sources  of  sickness  and  disease,  no  one  will  be  surprised 
to  hear  that  contagious  fevers  arose  in  the  mill,  nor  that 


82  HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY. 

the  deaths  were  so  frequent  as  to  require  constant  sup- 
plies of  parish  children  to  fill  up  the  vacancies.  It  has 
been  known  that  forty  boys  were  sick  at  one  time,  being 
about  one  fifth  of  the  whole  number.  Smith  was  one  of 
the  sick,  and  well  remembers  tar,  pitch  and  tobacco 
being  burned  in  the  room,  and  vinegar  being  sprinkled 
on  the  bed  and  floor.  He  also  remembers  the  doctor 
saying,  "  It  is  not  drugs,  but  kitchen  physic  they  want." 
So  great  was  the  mortality  at  one  time  that  the  mill 
owner  deemed  it  necessary  to  divide  the  burials,  sending 
a  part  of  them  to  a  distant  village,  although  the  fees  were 
greater,  in  order  to  conceal  the  sad  reality  from  his 
neighbors. 

Not  a  spark  of  pity  was  shown  to  the  sick  of  either  sex; 
they  were  worked  to  the  very  last  moment  it  was  possible 
for  them  to  work,  and  when  they  were  no  longer  able  to 
stand,  they  were  put  into  a  wheelbarrow,  and  wheeled 
to  the  apprentice  house.  The  doctor  was  seldom  called, 
till  the  patient  was  in  the  agonies  of  death. 

I  would  not  willingly  overcharge  the  picture  I  am 
drawing,  or  act  so  unwisely  as  to  exaggerate  these  atro- 
cities; and  it  is  with  some  degree  of  diffidence  I  state,  in 
consequence  of  combined  and  positive  testimony,  that  no 
nurse,  or  nursing,  was  allowed  to  the  sick,  further  than 
what  one  invalid  could  do  for  another  ! — that  neither 
candle  nor  lamp-light  was  allowed,  or  the  least  sign  of 
sympathy  manifested. 

I  will  not  harrow  up  the  feelings  of  my  readers,  by  en- 
tering into  a  minute  detail  of  all  the  hardships  and  suffer- 
ings that  befel  poor  Smith  during  his  fourteen  years  ser- 
vitude in  these  places;  they  are  such  as  would  scarcely 
be  credited  in  this  land.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  say,  that 
in  addition  to  his  attempt  to  escape,  he  twice  run  oft"  to 
make  complaints  to  the  magistrates,  and  show  them  his 
bruised    and  crippled  frame,  but  without  obtaining  the 


HISTORY    OF    AN    ORPHAN    BOY.  83 

least  relief.  Finding  no  remedy  in  the  law,  he  seriously 
entertained  the  idea  of  committing  suicide;  for  this  pur- 
pose he  went  up  to  an  attic  window  in  order  to  throw 
himself  out.  While  contemplating  the  awful  leap  he  was 
ahout  to  make,  something  seemed  to  whisper,  "  Have 
faith,  and  struggle  on."     He  then  abandoned  the  idea. 

Having  completed  his  term  of  fourteen  years,  viz.,  from 
seven  till  twenty-one,  he  worked  till  he  had  saved  a  little 
money,  and  then  left  that  place,  which  had  been  the 
scene  of  so  much  suffering  to  him  and  his  companions. 
Many  of  the  children  who  left  St.  Pancras  with  him, 
had  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh,  one  had  become  an  idiot, 
inconsequence  of  ill  treatment;  one  girl  was  unable  to 
walk  without  the  aid  of  crutches;  and  the  remainder 
were  more  or  less  crippled  and  mutilated  in  various  parts 
of  their  persons.  Smith  was  a  sad  spectacle  to  look 
upon,  stunted  in  growth,  his  legs  twisted  by  standing  so 
many  hours  at  the  frames,  his  countenance  haggard  and 
care-worn;  altogether  he  presented  the  appearance  of  a 
man  of  seventy  years,  who  had  seen  much  service,  rather 
than  a  person  of  twenty-one  years,  just  entering  upon 
manhood. 

Although  he  had  been  thus  crippled,  and  had  not  been 
taught  the  business  to  which  he  had  been  bound,  yet 
there  was  no  law  in  England  whereby  he,  in  his  poor 
condition,  could  obtain  compensation  for  the  injuries  he 
had  suffered,  or  might  suffer  through  life,  in  consequence 
of  the  unfeeling  avarice  of  his  masters. 

The  subsequent  history  of  Charles  Smith  is  one  con- 
tinued series  of  trials,  arising  out  of  his  crippled  condi- 
tion; and  though  it  might  be  interesting  to  the  general 
reader  to  know  how,  by  patient,  persevering  industry,  he 
afterwards  so  far  overcame  the  difficulties  of  his  position 
as  to  become  a  small  tradesman  in  Manchester,  yet  these 
particulars  would  far  exceed  our  limits. 


84  THE    LACE    MAKERS    OF    NOTTINGHAM. 

When  I  last  saw  Smith  in  Manchester,  he  told  me  he 
had  a  short  time  before  been  burned  out;  but  that  he  was 
then  beginning  to  recover  from  his  losses.  He  had  a 
wife  and  three  children,  two  girls  and  a  boy;  and  while 
I  took  tea  with  him,  he  told  me  he  would  feel  quite  happy 
if  God  would  enable  him  to  keep  his  children  from  going 
into  the  factories. 

It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  say  that  he  is  looked  upon 
in  his  neighborhood,  as  an  honest,  industrious  man,  a 
good  husband  and  kind  father. 


LETTER  X. 

THE    LACE    MAKERS     OF    NOTTINGHAM. 

Lace  making  is  a  business  in  which  men,  women  and 
children,  are  promiscuously  engaged.  This  business  re- 
quires in  its  various  operations,  the  delicate  little  fingers 
of  children,  perhaps  to  a  greater  degree  than  any  other. 
This  is  one  reason  why  a  large  majority  of  the  infant  la- 
boring population  of  Nottingham  are  employed  in  lace 
manufacture.  Lace  is  chiefly  fabricated  in  machines 
driven  by  steam.  These  machines  are  very  complicated 
in  their  structure,  but  as  my  object  is  more  particularly 
with  the  human  beings  who  attend  them,  I  will  refer  the 
curious  reader  to  the  various  works  upon  this  subject,  in 
many  of  which  a  full  description  of  those  machines  is 
given. 

It  will,  however,  be  necessary  to  state,  that  the  ma- 
chine in  which  the  lace  is  made,  is  supplied  with  the 
thread  by  means  of  small  bobbins.     The  process  of  filling 


THE    LACE    MAKERS    OF    NOTTINGHAM.  85 

these  bobbins  with  thread,  is  called  winding,  which  is 
performed  by  young  women  of  from  fourteen  to  twenty 
years  of  age;  they  very  rarely  begin  this  branch  earlier, 
as  it  requires  gi'eat  care.  The  bobbins  when  filled  with 
thread,  pass  into  other  hands,  to  be  placed  in  a  carriage, 
at  the  top  of  which  is  a  hole,  not  larger  than  the  eye  of  a 
needle,  through  which  the  thread  must  be  put.  This  op- 
eration, called  threading,  is  chiefly  performed  by  boys. 
The  bobbins,  with  their  carriages,  supply  the  machine 
with  thread;  somewhat  similar  to  the  "  shuttle  "  in  com- 
mon weaving.  After  the  bobbins  are  placed  in  the  frame, 
it  is  the  duty  of  a  workman  to  superintend  their  motions. 
He  has  to  watch  the  whole  breadth  of  a  machine,  weav- 
ing a  piece  of  lace  perhaps  forty,  fifty,  or  sixty  inches 
wide;  and  in  which  3600  bobbins  pass  through  as  many 
guide-threads,  a  hundred  times  a  minute.  This  may  be 
thought  impossible;  it  is  nevertheless  true.  Should  any 
fault  occur  he  must  adjust  it  on  the  instant.  The  lace 
machine  is  frequently  kept  going  for  eighteen  or  twenty 
hours  out  of  the  twenty-four. 

When  the  piece  of  lace  in  the  frame  is  finished,  it  is 
taken  out;  the  icinders  and  threaders  are  then  required  to 
fill  the  machine  with  the  requisite  number  of  bobbins  to 
commence  a  new  piece.  When  this  takes  place  in  the 
night  time,  as  is  very  frequently  the  case,  and  all  this 
threading  has  to  be  done  in  the  glare  of  a  gas  light,  it  is 
very  distressing  for  the  eyes.  The  poor  children  require 
sometimes  to  be  shaken,  or  beaten  with  a  cane,  to  keep 
them  from  falling  asleep  from  excessive  fatigue.  They 
are  mostly  divided  into  night  and  day  sets,  and  take  their 
turns  for  each  alternately.  Though  the  work  itself  is 
not  hard,  the  children  are  much  harassed  by  night  work, 
and  irregular  attendance. 

After  the  piece  of  lace  is  taken  from  the  frame,  it  un- 
dergoes a  variety  of  processes,  such  as  drawing,  rectify- 
8 


86  THE    LACE    MAKERS    OF    NOTTINGHAM. 

ing,  embroidering,  pearling  and  hemming.  The  article 
now  leaves  the  factory,  and  is  intrusted  to  small  masters 
and  mistresses,  who  work  at  their  own  houses,  and  em- 
ploy children  to  perform  the  above  operations.  A  large 
number  of  children,  mostly  girls,  are  employed  in  all 
these  processes,  which  more  or  less  are  performed  with 
the  needle.  In  fact,  I  believe  that  almost  all  the  children 
of  the  laboring  classes  in  Nottingham,  are  engaged  in  one 
or  the  other  of  the  several  branches  of  the  lace  manufac- 
ture, and  at  a  very  early  age.  The  common  saying  is, 
"  as  soon  as  they  can  tie  a  knot,  or  use  a  needle."  It 
is  in  these  departments  of  the  trade  that  we  see  infant 
labor  in  its  worst  light.  The  number  of  hours  these  in- 
fant victims  are  kept  incessantly  at  work,  in  confined 
apartments,  and  the  tender  ages  at  which  they  are  put  to 
it,  would  be  almost  incredible  to  a  stranger.  All  this, 
however,  is  substantiated  by  facts,  which  place  the  mat- 
ter beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt.  Almost  all  the 
families  employed  in  the  lace  manufacture  of  Notting- 
ham, are  supported,  more  or  less,  by  the  labor  of  their 
children. 

One  of  the  great  evils  of  this  system,  is,  that  of  revers- 
ing the  order  of  nature;  children  become  at  an  early  age 
independent  of  their  parents, — in  many  cases  the  latter 
are  even  obliged  to  act  as  menials  to  their  children. 
Another  evil,  is,  that  worthless  fathers  are  enabled  to 
spend  their  time  in  low  pot-houses,  out  of  their  children's 
earnings.  A  third  evil  is  the  immorality  which  prevails 
among  the  young  people.  The  threaders,  who  are  usual- 
ly boys,  and  the  winders,  who  are  mostly  girls,  are  re- 
quired at  the  same  time  and  place,  day  and  night;  and 
thus,  in  the  absence  of  proper  restraint,  have  every  fa- 
cility for  forming  improper  connections.  The  natural 
results  of  such  a  noxious  system  are  but  too  apparent, 
and  must  have  contributed  in  no  slight  degree  to  the  im- 


THE    LACE    MAKERS    OF    NOTTINGHAM.  87 

morality,  which,  according  to  the  opinion  universally  ex- 
pressed, prevails  to  a  most  awful  extent  in  Nottingham. 

Women  brought  up  under  such  a  system  know  little  of 
the  domestic  duties  of  every  day  life,  and  which  are  so 
essentially  necessary  to  be  known  by  those  who  may  be 
called  upon  to  fill  the  important  stations  of  wives  and 
mothers.  Hence  we  find  them  after  marriage  still  en- 
gaged at  their  own  houses  in  some  process  of  lace  manu- 
facture, while  the  duties  of  the  family  are  intrusted  to 
others. 

Having  no  time  to  attend  to  their  families,  nor  even  to 
discharge  the  first  and  most  sacred  duty  of  mothers,  that 
of  nursing  their  offspring,  they  freely  administer  opium 
in  some  form,  such  as  Godfrey's  and  Anodyne  cordial, 
and  laudanum,  to  their  infants.  These  drugs  are  given 
to  infants  at  the  breast,  not  because  the  child  is  ill,  but 
to  compose  it  to  rest,  in  order  to  prevent  their  cries  inter- 
fering with  the  protracted  labor  by  which  they  strive  to 
obtain  a  miserable  subsistence.  The  infants  become 
pale,  tremulous,  and  emaciated,  the  joints  and  head  en- 
large, they  become  listless,  and  death  at  length  steps  in 
to  their  relief. 

Great  numbers  of  children  are  thus  carried  off  yearly; 
should  they,  however,  get  over  "  the  seasoning,"  as  it  is 
called,  they  begin  to  come  round  about  three  or  four 
years  old,  i.  e.,  as  soon  as  the  laudanum  is  discontinued. 

In  the  present  state  of  trade,  it  would  be  impossible  for 
men  to  do  without  their  wives  laboring ;  they  must  work, 
however  many  children  they  may  have;  from  the  same 
cause,  the  children  must  go  out  to  work  as  soon  as  they 
are  able  to  use  the  needle. 

With  respect  to  wages,  I  will  not  venture  to  make  any 
statement;  I  fear  it  would  not  be  credited.  This  may  be 
imagined  from  two  things  :  first,  the  condition  of  the  peo- 
ple;  second,  from  the  fact  that  a  piece  of  lace  which  for- 


88  FLAX    SPINNERS. 

merly  was  worth  from  seventy  to  eighty  dollars,  can  now 
be  bought  for  three  dollars. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  condition  of  one  of  the 
most  industrious  classes  to  be  found  in  England.  The 
fair  wearers  of  lace  will  be  distressed  to  learn  that  this 
highly  ornamented  article,  is  produced  (in  England,  at 
least,)  at  the  expense  of  so  much  misery.* 


LETTER  XI. 

FLAX    SPINNERS. 

The  condition  of  the  operatives  in  flax  mills,  in  Leeds, 
and  other  places  in  the  North  of  England,  and  South  of 
Scotland,  is  any  thing  but  pleasing  to  contemplate.  This 
will  be  best  understood  by  inspecting  the  various  pro- 
cesses, which  are  of  the  following  nature. 

The  flax,  as  imported,  is  delivered  to  the  hand-hecklers , 
who  roughly  separate  the  fibres  by  drawing  the  bunches 
through  a  quantity  of  iron  spikes  called  heckles,  fixed 
before  them.  This  is  a  very  dusty  process.  The  hand- 
hecklers  are  mostly  men,  or  strong  lads.  The  flax  is 
then  carried  to  the  heckling  machine,  in  connection  with 
which  a  greater  number  of  young  children  are  employed 

*  In  1846,  a  bill  was  brought  into  the  House  of  Commons  (prepared  by 
Mr.  T.  Duncombe,  Colonel  Rolleston,  and  Mr.  J.  Fielden,)  "  to  regulate 
the  hours  of  night  labor  in  factories  where  bobbin/ net  and  warp  lace  ma- 
chinery is  employed/'  consisting  of  seventeen  clauses.  It  proposes  to 
enact  that  night  labor  shall  henceforth  cease  in  these  factories,  and  that 
the  working  hours  shall  not  be  earlier  than  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  to 
not  later  than  ten  o'clock  at  night,  subject  to  certain  penalties.  It  further 
prohibits  the  employment  of  children  under  eight  years  of  age. 


FLAX    SPINNERS.  89 

than  in  any  other  process  in  the  business.  They  are 
mostly  boys.  The  machine  consists  of  various  sorts  of 
cylinders,  or  rather  polygonal  prisms,  having  heckles  set 
on  their  edges,  which  revolve  with  great  rapidity;  and 
the  business  of  the  machine  minders  is  to  fix  the  bunches 
of  flax  on  supports  in  front  of  these  heckles,  and  to  move 
them  from  time  to  time,  from  the  coarser  to  the  finer 
heckles.  The  bunches,  for  the  purpose  of  being  thus 
suspended,  are  screwed  between  two.  bars  of  iron,  which 
is  the  business  of  the  screwer;  who  is  generally  a  younger 
boy  than  the  machine  minder,  and  his  labor  is  very  fa- 
tiguing; in  fact,  this  is  one  of  the  most  laborious  employ- 
ments to  which  children  can  be  put,  independently  of  the 
noxious  atmosphere,  which  is  loaded  with  particles  of  flax 
incessantly  pulled  off,  and  scattered  by  the  whirling  of 
the  machines.  The  screwer  seems  not  to  have  an  instant's 
cessation  from  labor ;  bunch  after  bunch  is  thrown  down 
before  him  to  fix  and  unfix,  which  he  performs  with  as- 
tonishing rapidity.  If  he  does  not  perform  his  work  prop- 
erly, it  mars  the  work  of  the  machine  minder,  and  a  box 
on  the  ear,  or  a  kick  with  the  foot,  is  the  usual  conse- 
quence. 

The  machine  minder  is  far  from  being  idle ;  he  has  to 
move  his  flax  when  it  has  received  its  due  proportion  of 
heckling  in  one  position,  the  arrival  of  which  time  is  indi- 
cated by  a  bell;  he  has  also  to  collect  from  between  the 
rows  of  spikes,  as  they  revolve,  the  tow,  or  short  fibres 
and  refuse  of  the  flax  which  they  comb  off*.  The  boys 
become  very  expert  at  this  part  of  the  business,  but  some- 
times suffer  severely  while  learning,  in  consequence  of 
having  their  hands  caught  by  the  spikes  on  the  cylinders 
as  they  revolve.  The  tow  is  collected  and  carried  to  the 
card  room,  which  is  equally  bad  in  regard  to  dust  as  the 
heckling  room.  After  the  tow  has  been  carded,  it  is 
8* 


90  FLAX    SPINNERS. 

ready  for  spinning.  I  believe  that  tow  is  invariably  spun 
dry. 

The  heckled  flax,  or  line,  after  being  separated  from 
the  tow,  is  sorted,  according  to  its  fibre,  for  various  de- 
grees of  fineness.  This  is  done  by  young  men  called 
line-sorters.  Girls  termed  line-spreaders,  are  employed 
to  unite  the  bunches  of  line  into  one  sliver,  and  thence  it 
is  roved  and  spun. 

In  spinning  the  fine  line,  it  is  necessary  to  allow  each 
thread  to  pass  through  a  trough  of  hot  water,  (from  110  to 
140  degrees  of  Fahrenheit,)  which  is  placed  at  the  back 
of  the  spindles.  This  is  called  wet  spinning.  The  hot 
water  enables  them  to  spin  the  line  much  finer  than  it 
could  be  done  without  it,  on  account  of  the  fibres  sliding 
more  easily  among  each  other.  As  the  line  is  spun  it  is 
wound  on  to  the  spindles,  and  as  they  revolve  very  rap- 
idly, they  throw  off  a  continual  sprinkling  of  water  along 
the  whole  front  of  the  frame.  Now  as  there  is  another 
frame  at  no  great  distance,  the  spinners,  who  are  mostly 
young  women,  are  exposed  to  this  small  rain  both  before 
and  behind;  which  is  quite  sufficient  to  wet  them  through 
in  a  few  hours,  especially  when  the  frames  are  placed  too 
close  to  each  other.  They  stand  on  a  ivet  floor,  which  is 
so  constructed  as  to  let  the  water  run  off  into  pipes  below, 
and  thence  into  a  common  sewer.  They  have  no  protec- 
tion from  the  hot  water  except  a  blanket-apron,  which  is 
soon  wet  through,  and  they  generally  work  without  stock- 
ings and  shoes.  Most  of  the  time  their  hands  are  dab- 
bling in  the  hot  water,  in  piecing  broken  threads,  and 
rectifying  any  error  of  the  machinery. 

I  have  seen  these  rooms  so  filled  with  steam  from  the 
hot  water,  (a  fresh  supply  of  which  is  constantly  running 
into  the  troughs,)  in  the  depth  of  winter,  as  to  oblige 
them  to  keep  the  windows  open  to  let  it  out. 

The  consequences  of  all  this  are  frequent  colds,  occa- 


FLAX    SPINNERS.  91 

sioned  by  passing  from  so  warm  a  room  filled  with  steam, 
to  the  open  air  at  all  seasons,  especially  in  winter  eve- 
nings; hands  much  chapped  and  sore,  which  it  is  painful 
to  behold,  and  considerable  swellings  of  the  feet  and  legs. 
It  is  no  uncommon  thing  to  hear  of  eight  or  ten  of  them 
remaining  at  home  sick.  Their  appearance  as  they  walk 
along  the  street,  is  that  of  persons  far  advanced  in  a  de- 
cline. 

The  dry  spinners  suffer  from  the  dust  and  small  parti- 
cles of  flax,  which  get  on  to  their  lungs  and  cause  asth- 
ma, &c.  Many  of  the  young  women  employed  in  wet 
and  dry  flax  spinning,  die  early  in  life.  Should  they, 
however,  live  till  thirty-five  or  forty  years  of  age,  they 
appear  to  have  all  the  symptoms  of  old  age. 

Since  I  commenced  this  article,  the  "  Morning  Post  " 
of  April  3,  1846,  has  been  handed  to  me,  in  which  I  find 
the  following  case  of  hardship  experienced  by  six  young 
women  employed  in  the  flax  mills  of  Dundee,  in  Scotland, 
to  which  I  would  draw  the  reader's  attention. 

It  appears  that  Messrs.  Baxter  of  Dundee,  (who  are 
said  to  be  wealthy  and  powerful  persons,  influential  mer- 
chants, flax  spinners,  bankers  and  ship  owners,)  employ 
2,500  persons,  of  whom  1 ,300  were  employed  in  the  fac- 
tory in  which  the  case  to  which  we  refer  occurred. 

The  poor  girls  are  six  in  number,  the  eldest  nineteen, 
and  the  youngest  thirteen  years  of  age.  Four  of  the  six 
are  orphans,  entirely  unprotected.  They  had  worked 
for  Messrs.  Baxter  a  long  time,  and  during  the  whole  pe- 
riod of  their  service  had  never  been  guilty  of  any  offence 
whatever.  It  appears  that  their  respective  wages  were 
$1,32  a  week,  and  that,  as  some  of  the  operatives  em- 
ployed in  the  same  mill  with  themselves  had  lately  applied 
for,  and  obtained  a  rise  of  six  cents,  (i.  e.  one  cent  a 
day,)  in  their  wages,  viz  ;  from  $1,32  to  $1,38,  they  ap- 
plied for  a  similar  advance,  and  were  refused.     The  rules 


92  FLAX    SPINNERS. 

of  the  factory  obliged  them  to  be  at  their  work  at  5 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  continue,  with  the  exception 
of  meal  times,  till  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  Also, 
that  for  all  the  time  they  were  absent  on  their  own  ac- 
count, the  operatives  were  to  pay  a  fine  equal  to  "the 
time  and  a  half;"  i.  e.  if  a  person  was  absent  five  hours, 
he  should  be  fined  the  amount  he  could  earn  in  seven 
and  a  half  hours.     This  is  the  standing  rule  in  that  mill. 

On  the  27th  of  October,  1845,  these  six  girls,  after 
leaving  work  at  the  dinner  hour,  did  not  return  to  it  again 
that  day,  and  were  absent  about  five  hours,  viz  :  from  2 
till  7  o'clock.  On  the  following  morning  they  were  at 
work  at  5  o'clock  as  usual,  (not  knowing  that  they  had 
done  any  thing  wrong,  any  further  than  breaking  the 
rules  of  the  mill,  for  which,  they  were  aware,  they  would 
be  fined  to  the  amount  of  seven  and  a  half  hours'  work,) 
and  continued  to  work  till  5  o'clock  in  the  evening;  when 
they  were  apprehended  while  at  work,  by  four  men,  and 
taken  to  a  private  office  and  examined.  They  there 
stated  that  "  They  had  no  desire  to  desert  their  service, 
but  had  merely  taken  that  afternoon  for  recreation." 

They  were  kept  at  this  office  jive  hours,  and  were  after- 
wards carried  to  another  private  office,  where  the  mag- 
istrates were,  together  with  one  of  their  employers  with 
his  overseer  or  manager.  They  were  then  told  they  must 
sign  a  paper  which  was  placed  before  them,  and  it  is 
worthy  of  remark  that  Mr.  Baxter  was  observed  to  whis- 
per something  to  the  magistrates  before  the  sentence  was 
passed  upon  them.  And  what  does  the  reader  think  that 
sentence  was?  Why,  nothing  less  than  ten  days'  impris- 
onment, with  hard  labor.  This  mock  trial  was  conducted 
with  closed  doors,  no  one  was  allowed  to  enter,  even  the 
few  relatives  of  these  poor  girls  were  refused  admittance. 
Their  relatives  were  also  refused  to  see  them  during  their 


FLAX    SPINNERS.  93 

confinement.     This  is  a  specimen  of  the  wretched  laws 
of  England.     There  is  no  justice  for  the  poor. 

This  case  was  taken  into  consideration  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Dundee,  who  sent  a  petition  to  Parliament  on  the 
26th  of  February,  1846. 

It  was  again  brought  before  the  notice  of  Parliament 
on  Thursday,  April  2,  when  a  motion  was  made  to  in- 
quire into  the  particulars  of  the  case,  and  lost  by  a  ma- 
jority of  twenty-five.  Alas  !  poor  country,  when  will  thy 
oppressed  people  have  justice  done  them? 

There  are  some  people  who  take  a  sort  of  pleasure  in 
speaking  against  the  laboring  portion  of  my  countrymen; 
calling  them  idle,  drunken,  and  the  like.  In  order  to 
show  the  reader  that  such  is  not  their  general  character, 
and  that  they  are  not  only  industrious,  and  work  hard  for 
a  little,  but  that  they  know  how  to  take  care  of  that  little 
when  they  have  got  it,  I  will  here  insert  an  extract,  taken 
from  the  books  of  the  Savings  Bank  of  Dundee  some  four 
or  five  years  ago. 

In  that  town,  out  of  464  male  weavers,  with  wages  av- 
eraging $1,92,  108  are  depositors.  Of  181  flax  dressers, 
with  the  wages  averaging  $2,88,  36  are  depositors.  Of 
290  mechanics,  with  wages  equal  to  $4,85.  56  are  depos- 
itors. And  even  among  the  class  of  girls  whose  case  I 
have  just  recorded,  there  is  one  solitary  depositer,  while 
there  are  237  accounts  in  the  names  of  female  domestic 
servants. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  each  of  the  poor  peo- 
ple whose  hardships  have  been  recorded,  in  this  and  the 
preceding  letters,  have  to  pay  taxes  to  government,  in  ad- 
dition to  finding  their  own  food,  clothing,  and  necessaries, 
without  regard  to  age,  sex,  or  condition. 


94       A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES. 


LETTER  XII. 

A    FACTORY    CONDUCTED  -  ON    CHRISTIAN    PRINCIPLES. 

In  the  town  of  Bradford,  in  the  county  of  Yorkshire, 
England,  there  is  one  of  the  largest  worsted  spinning  es- 
tablishments in  England;  by  some  it  is  thought  to  be  the 
largest  in  the  world.  It  is  carried  on  under  the  firm  of 
Messrs.  Wood  and  Walker.  From  actual  observation, 
(having  on  several  occasions  been  permitted  to  inspect 
the  premises,)  the  writer  is  enabled  to  make  the  follow- 
ing remarks  concerning  this  vast  establishment.  The 
reader's  attention  is  called  to  this,  as  an  exception  to  the 
general  rule  of  factory  government  in  England. 

On  the  premises,  which  are  very  extensive,  are  two 
large  mills,  counting  room,  school  house,  &c.  At  the 
entrance  gate  is  a  porter's  lodge,  with  a  person  con- 
stantly in  attendance;  no  one  being  permitted  to  enter 
except  by  leave,  or  on  business. 

A  person  on  entering  this  place  for  the  first  time,  is 
struck  with  the  clean,  orderly,  and  healthy  appearance 
of  the  work  people;  and  is  naturally  led  to  inquire  how 
these  desirable  results  are  brought  about.  The  answer 
to  these  inquiries  is  to  be  found  in  the  mild,  generous  and 
christian  regulations  of  the  place. 

The  hours  of  labor  in  these  mills  are  eleven  per  day. 
In  summer  they  commence  work  at  6  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  breakfast  at  half-past  7,  (30  minutes  being  al- 
lowed); dine  at  12  (one  hour  being  allowed);  tea  at  5  (30 
minutes  being  allowed);  and  leave  the  mills  at  7  in  the 
evening.  In  winter  they  commence  at  half-past  6,  de- 
ducting 10  minutes  from  each  of  the  three  meal  times  to 
make  up  the  difference.     No  part  of  the  time  allowed  for 


A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES.       95 

meals  is  occupied  in  cleaning  machinery,  but  is  entirely 
at  the  disposal  of  the  work  people. 

Those  work  people  who  live  at  a  distance,  and  who 
are  obliged  to  bring  their  food  with  them,  have  a  warm, 
convenient  room  provided  for  them  to  sit  in,  and  their 
victuals  are  made  warm  and  comfortable,  as  if  they  had 
been  at  home;  this  arrangement  is  attended  with  very 
little  cost,  while  it  enables  every  one  to  have  warm, 
clean  and  comfortable  meals. 

The  dining  room  is  a  large  one,  on  the  ground  floor, 
kept  for  this,  and  no  other  purpose.  It  is  provided  with 
good  strong  tables  and  forms,  and  kept  very  clean  and 
orderly.  Adjoining  this  room  is  a  smaller  one,  used  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  warming  the  provisions  of  the  work 
people;  it  is  well  fitted  up  with  a  steam  apparatus, 
troughs,  shelves,  &c.  The  children  and  others,  who  live 
at  a  distance,  being  their  breakfast,  dinner  and  tea  when 
they  come  to  work,  in  tin  cans  (which  are  all  numbered), 
and  place  them  on  the  particular  shelf  allotted  to  the 
room  in  which  they  work.  A  man  (and  sometimes  also 
a  woman)  looks  after  this  room,  and  gets  every  tin  made 
warm  by  means  of  the  steam  apparatus,  and  all  placed 
on  their  respective  tables  in  proper  time.  It  gave  me 
great  pleasure  to  inspect  the  arrangements  of  these  well 
regulated  rooms. 

In  one  of  my  visits,  Mr.  Balme,  the  schoolmaster, 
kindly  accompanied  me  to  the  dining  room;  we  took  our 
station  at  the  lower  end  of  the  room,  directly  opposite 
the  entrance,  and  awaited  the  coming  of  the  children. 
This,  I  was  told,  is  part  of  the  schoolmaster's  duty,  and 
his  presence  preserves  silence  and  order  during  meal 
hours.  Exactly  at  the  half  hour  the  engine  stopped,  and 
the  children,  to  the  number  of  about  400,  began  to  come 
in  to  breakfast.  All  the  tin  cans  containing  their  tea  or 
coffee  had  been  placed  on  the  table  ready,  and  all  had 


96       A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES. 

taken  their  seats;  the  boys  on  one  side  of  the  room  and 
the  girls  on  the  other;  and  had  unfolded  their  little  por- 
tions of  bread  and  butter,  but  no  one  began  to  eat.  How 
is  this?  I  turned  my  eye  to  the  schoolmaster  for  an  ex- 
planation. He  had  his  watch  in  hand,  and  at  the  expira- 
tion of  5  minutes  from  the  time  the  engine  stopped, 
(which  time  is  allowed  for  all  to  get  seated)  he  gave  a 
signal.  At  this  signal  they  all  rose  and  sang  a  beautiful 
verse  as  grace  before  meat;  this  surprised  and  pleased  me 
much;  I  could  scarcely  believe  I  was  among  factory 
people. 

The  grace  being  ended,  they  began  to  eat  their  break- 
fast, the  schoolmaster  still  remaining  in  his  place.  Some 
of  the  boys  were  soon  done,  and  seemed  to  manifest  a 
little  impatience  to  get  out  to  play;  these  boys  kept  their 
eye  steadfastly  fixed  upon  the  schoolmaster.  At  exactly 
10  minutes  from  the  time  of  commencing  breakfast,  he 
gave  the  word  "go;  "  immediately  the  boys  and  younger 
girls  departed  quietly,  two  or  three  together,  while  the 
young  women  remained  to  spend  their  quarter  of  an 
hour  in  knitting  or  sewing. 

Now,  dear  reader,  look  into  the  play -ground;  see 
their  merry  little  faces  and  active  limbs,  striving  who 
can  be  most  happy.  How  very  different  is  all  this  from 
what  I  experienced  when  a  factory  boy.  But  how  does 
it  happen  that  these  children  are  so  active  and  playful, 
and  the  generality  of  factory  children  so  jaded  and  tired? 
It  is  because  these  children  enjoy  many  privileges,  of 
which  ninety-nine  out  of  every  hundred  factory  children 
know  nothing. 

In  every  room  in  which  the  children  work,  there  are 
at  least  half  a  dozen  spare  hands,  who  relieve  the  oth- 
ers by  turns,  and  the  children  are  not  only  allowed,  but 
provided  with  seats.  These  seats  are  fixed  along  both 
sides  of  the  rooms,  in  addition  to  which,  every  frame  at- 


A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES.       97 

tended  by  any  young  person  has  stools  attached  to  it  by 
means  of  a  joint,  which  allows  of  their  being  placed 
under  the  frame  when  not  wanted.  The  seats  at  the 
sides  of  the  rooms  are  for  the  use  of  the  spare  hands; 
those  attached  to  the  frames,  for  the  children  at  work. 
Occasionally  it  happens  in  these  mills,  that  a  child  can 
have  half  a  minute  to  spare,  then  by  a  motion  of  the  foot, 
the  stool  can  be  brought  from  under  the  frame,  and  it 
can  be  thus  relieved  from  its  standing  posture.  None 
but  those  who  have  experienced  it,  can  know  the  value 
of  a  seat  in  these  spare  half  minutes,  to  a  child  thus  cir- 
cumstanced. The  children  have  here  no  harsh  treat- 
ment to  endure  from  their  overlookers,  who  seem  to  be 
an  intelligent  set  of  men,  and  endowed  with  a  large  share 
of  the  christian  spirit  of  their  masters.  Should  one  of 
these  overlookers  dare  to  strike  a  child,  he  would  be  im- 
mediately dismissed. 

The  school-room  is  a  large  new  building,  erected  near 
the  mills.  The  firm  provide,  at  considerable  expense,  a 
schoolmaster  and  schoolmistress,  who  are  brother  and 
sister;  also  books,  slates,  maps,  pens,  ink,  &c.  The 
children  under  thirteen  years  of  age,  to  the  number  of 
between  300  and  400,  are  divided  into  sections,  each  at- 
tending school  at  least  two  hours  per  day.  The  boys 
learn  reading,  writing,  arithmetic,  geography  and  sing- 
ing; and  the  girls  learn  knitting  and  sewing,  in  addition, 
to  the  above.  Adjoining  the  school-room  is  the  washing- 
room,  which  is  provided  with  a  number  of  large  basins 
and  clean  towels,  and  water  is  laid  on  and  can  be  had 
by  turning  a  tap.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  suffices  to  ena- 
ble a  division  to  clean  for  school.  With  a  more  cleanly, 
healthy-looking  set  of  factory  children  I  have  nowhere 
met. 

It  is  but  justice  to  state,  that  this  school  and  its  ar- 
rangements were   originally   planned  and  superintended 
9  ~ 


98       A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES. 

by  that  indefatigable  friend  of  the  factory  laborers,  the 
Rev.  G.  S.  Bull;  and  that  it  was  opened  for  the  chil- 
dren previously  to  the  introduction  of  the  Factory  Regu- 
lation Bill. 

When  the  children  arrive  at  the  age  of  thirteen  years, 
they  are  then  permitted  to  work  full  time;  and  on  leav- 
ing school  they  are  presented  with  a  handsome  Bible, 
with  the  following  inscription  on  the  inside  of  the  cover: — 

"  This  copy  of  God's  Holy  Word  was  given  to 

on  attaining  the  thirteenth  year 
of  her  age,  as  a  reward  for  good  conduct  during  three 
years  attendance  at  Messrs.  Wood  and  Walker's  Fac- 
tory School. 

"  May  you  ever  '  read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  di- 
gest; '  may  you  '  embrace  and  ever  hold  fast  the  blessed 
promises  of  everlasting  life,'  contained  in  this  Sacred 
Book. 

"  May  it  be  your  guide  through  life,  and  your  support 
in  the  hour  of  death. 

M.  Balme,  Schoolmaster  to 
Messrs.  Wood  and  Walker. 
Bradford,  184—." 

The  young  women  in  this  establishment  are  of  a  supe- 
rior cast.  This  arises  in  part  from  the  care  which  has 
been  taken  of  them  when  they  were  children,  and  from 
the  rules  respecting  their  government  now  they  are 
grown  up,  which  rules  are  strictly  enforced.  The  prin- 
cipal of  these  are,  that?io  married  females  shall  be  allotved 
to  work  in  these  mills;  and  that  any  "  single  female"  being 
known  to  conduct  herself  improperly ,  must  instantly  quit  her 
employment.  The  hours  of  labor  also,  not  being  so  long 
as  at  most  places,  allow  them  more  time  to  learn  domestic 
habits  and  improve  their  minds.     They  enjoy  also  a  great 


A  FACTORY  CONDUCTED  ON  CHRISTIAN  PRINCIPLES.       99 

advantage  in  having  warm,  comfortable  meals  on  the 
premises,  if  they  should  require  it.  Their  appearance  is 
clean  and  decent,  and  they  seem  to  take  a  pride  in  keep- 
ing themselves  so.  On  inquiry,  I  learned  that  most  of 
them  had  been  brought  up  under  this  firm,  and  may  be 
said  to  know  very  little  of  the  vice  and  wickedness  gen- 
erally prevailing  in  other  English  factories. 

There  are  not  many  men  employed  in  the  spinning  de- 
partments, but  of  wool-sorters  and  combers  there  are  a 
great  number,  who  enjoy  comparatively  good  wages. 

A  surgeon,  liberally  paid,  is  provided  by  the  firm; 
whose  duty  it  is  to  go  over  the  works  daily,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  inspecting  the  health  of  the  work  people.  Should 
this  gentleman  notice  any  one  looking  ill,  he  makes  in- 
quiry as  to  the  cause,  and  if  it  be  any  thing  requiring  rest 
or  medicine,  he  is  ordered  home  immediately;  or  should 
any  of  the  work  people  feel  themselves  sick,  they  apply 
to  the  surgeon  and  obtain  timely  advice  and  assistance. 
During  the  time  they  are  off  work,  their  wages  are  sent 
to  them  the  same  as  if  they  were  at  work.  To  this  part 
of  their  benevolent  plan,  the  work  people  contribute  a 
small  weekly  sum. 

In  a  conversation  with  one  of  the  partners  of  the  firm, 
he  said  to  me,  H  that,  although  they  did  all  they  could  to 
make  their  work  people  comfortable,  yet  they  were  well 
aware  their  system  was  not  what  it  ought  to  be.  They 
were  anxious  to  reduce  the  hours  of  labor  to  ten  per  day, 
if  the  other  manufacturers  would  do  the  same;  and  until 
that  took  place,  he  did  not  see  what  other  improvements 
could  be  made." 

This  establishment  is  conducted  in  a  manner  which  re- 
flects great  credit  on  the  firm,  and  affords  a  striking 
proof  of  what  may  be  done  by  those  manufacturers  who 
feel  disposed  to  improve  the  condition  of  their  work  peo- 
ple.    It  would  give  me  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  say, 


100 


THE    CONTRAST. 


that  of  the  many  thousand  establishments  there  are  in 
England  for  the  manufacture  of  silk,  cotton,  linen,  and 
woollen  goods,  Jive  could  be  found  to  answer  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  one  here  given;   such,  however,  I  fear  is  not 


the  case 


LETTER  XIII 


THE    CONTRAST. 


I  am  aware  that  it  is  not  always  advisable  to  make 
comparisons;  there  are,  however,  exceptions  to  most 
rules,  and  if  any  good  is  likely  to  result,  I  think  we 
ought  not  to  allow  any  trifling  circumstance  to  check  our 
endeavors.  In  laying  before  the  reader  the  following 
contrast,  I  am  actuated  solely  by  a  desire  to  show  the 
tendency  of  insufficient  remuneration  for  labor,  and  the 
evil  resulting  from  long  hours  of  labor  to  young  people  in 
factories. 

In  the  winter  of  1841-2  my  business  required  me  to 
travel  through  the  county  of  Derbyshire,  in  England. 
In  this  journey  I  was  detained  by  unfavorable  weather 
at  Matlock  Baths,  a  place  remarkable  for  its  romantic 
beauty,  mineral  springs,  and  subterranean  caverns.  I 
employed  a  part  of  the  leisure  time  thus  afforded  me,  in 
examining  these  local  curiosities;  but  particularly  the 
caverns,  which  are  so  justly  celebrated. 

Having  satisfied  my  curiosity  with  all  that  was  inter- 
esting under  ground,  I  turned  my  attention  to  what  was 
going  on  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  village. 

In  Matlock  Baths  and  the  neighboring  village  of  Crom- 
ford,   there   are  three  cotton  mills.     These  mills,  at  the 


THE    CONTRAST.  10] 

time  of  my  visit,  belonged  to  the  late  Mr.  Richard  Aik- 
wright,  the  only  son  of  Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  the  fa- 
ther of  the  English  factory  system. 

As  this  place  was  one  of  the  earliest  seats  of  the  cot- 
ton manufacture,  I  was  anxious  to  see  the  effects  of  the 
factory  system  here.  The  people  of  this  village  seldom 
migrate,  have  very  little  intercourse  in  any  way  with  the 
inhabitants  of  large  towns,  and  know  but  little  of  what  is 
going  on  beyond  the  beautiful  hills  by  which  they  are 
surrounded. 

I  found  the  general  condition  of  the  people  to  be  any 
thing  but  favorable  to  a  high  state  of  moral  and  intellec- 
tual culture.  Long  hours  of  labor,  low  wages,  and  hard 
fare  seemed  to  be  the  prevailing  characteristic  of  the  fac- 
tory system  in  that  place.  Many  of  the  poor  inhabitants 
related  to  me  their  tales  of  sufferings  and  privation,  and 
seemed  to  feel  their  miseries  very  keenly.  Among  other 
things,  I  was  very  much  interested  in  the  case  of  one  of 
their  factory  cripples. 

Being  directed  to  a  small  cottage  in  the  village  of 
Cromford,  (which  joins  that  of  Matlock,)  where  this  poor 
man  resided,  I  made  free  to  knock.  The  door  was 
opened  by  a  clean,  elderly  woman,  the  widowed  mother 
of  the  poor  cripple,  who  kindly  invited  me  in,  and  re- 
quested me  to  be  seated. 

Having  explained  the  object  of  my  visit,  I  was  direct- 
ed to  a  young  man  who  sat  in  a  corner,  at  work  upon  a 
child's  first  shoe.  After  a  short  introduction,  I  asked  him 
if  he  would  be  kind  enough  to  inform  me  how  he  became 
such  a  cripple;  he  very  readily  complied  with  my  re- 
quest, and  related  to  me  his  history  in  nearly  the  follow- 
ing words,  his  mother  sitting  beside  him  at  the  time: 

"  My  name  is  J R ;  I  went  to  work  in  the  cot- 
ton factory  in  the  adjoining  village  of  Matlock  Baths,  at 
the  age  of  9  years.  I  was  then  a  fine,  strong,  healthy 
9* 


102  THE    CONTRAST. 

lad,  and  straight  in  every  limb.  They  gave  me  at  first 
48  cents  per  week.  For  this  I  had  to  work  12  hours  a 
day.  Our  master  was  very  exact  as  to  time;  if  we 
worked  more  than  12  hours  a  day  we  were  paid  for  the 
extra  time,  if  less,  we  were  abated. 

Sometimes  we  were  obliged  to  stop  the  mill,  from  hav- 
ing too  much  or  too  little  water  ;  the  time  thus  lost  was 
always  deducted,  and  our  overtime  added.  On  pay-day 
we  gave  in  our  time,  and  were  paid  accordingly." 

"  Then,"  said  I,  "  you  mean  to  say,  that  your  wages 
of  48  cents  was  for  72  hours'  work.  To  which  he  re- 
plied,  "  exactly  so." 

"  I  got  my  wages  raised,"  he  continued,  "  as  I  learn- 
ed my  business  ;  but  our  master,  Mr.  Arkwright,  was 
always  very  exact  in  these  things.  He  always  raised 
our  wages  at  the  beginning  of  the  year,  and  at  no  other 
time  except  for  some  very  particular  reason.  He  would 
then  give  us  a  little  more  each,  and  that  was  to  be  our 
wages  for  the  next  twelve  months.  I  worked  in  that  mill 
for  about  ten  years.  I  never  worked  in  any  other  mill  ; 
I  never  had  any  other  master  than  Mr.  Arkwright. 

I  gradually  became  a  cripple,  till  at  the  age  of  19  I 
was  unable  to  stand  at  the  machine  through  the  day,  and 
was  obliged  to  give  it  up.  You  see,  sir,  what  a  figure  I 
am;  I  cannot  walk  without  the  help  of  this  stick  and  my 
brother's  arm.  I  have  only  been  down  to  the  market 
place,  at  the  bottom  of  the  street,  twice  since  I  left  the 
mill,  and  I  do  not  feel  a  desire  to  go  again,  the  people 
stare  at  me  so." 

"  How  long  is  it  since  you  left  the  mill?  "  said  I. 

II  Nearly  two  years." 

"  Then  you  are  about  21  years  old?  " 
**  Yes  sir,  I  shall  be  21  next  birth-day." 
Reader,   imagine  you   see  before  you  a  young  man, 
whose  body  forms  (when  he   is  standing,  supported  by  a 


THE    CONTRAST.  103 

stick  on  one  side  and  is  holding  by  a  table  on  the  other) 
a  curve  from  the  forehead  to  the  knees,  similar  to  the 
letter  C,  his  legs  twisted  in  all  manner  of  ways  by  stand- 
ing at  the  frames,  and  you  will  have  a  tolerable  picture 
of  our  friend  J R ,  of  Cromford. 

Here  is  a  person  just  entering  upon  manhood,  who 
was  evidently  intended  by  nature  for  a  stout,  able  bodied 
man,  crippled  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  all  his  earthly 
prospects  gone.  Such  a  cripple  as  this  man,  I  have  sel- 
dom met  with.  Yet  it  was  pleasing  to  see  with  what  pa- 
tience and  resignation  he  bore  his  lot.  He  had  learned 
to  read  and  write  a  little,  and  his  brother  was  teaching 
him  to  make  first  shoes  for  children. 

This  man  has  been  paying  taxes  to  the  government  of 
England  from  his  birth,  or  his  parents  for  him;  but  there 
is  no  law  by  means  of  which  he  can  gain  any  compensa- 
tion for  the  injuries  he  has  sustained. 

In  returning  to  my  lodgings,  I  passed  by  his  master's 
Castle;  and  my  imagination  was  busy  at  work  in  pictu- 
ring the  multitudes  of  human  bones  and  sinews  that  had 
been  sacrificed  in  building  it.  I  almost  fancied  I  could 
see  them  intermixed  with  the  stones  and  mortar. 

I  left  Matlock  Baths,  and  in  the  noise  and  bustle  of 
every  day  life,  the  case  of  J.  R.  had  been  well  nigh  for- 
got, till  in  the  spring  of  1843,  it  was  again  brought  to  my 
recollection,  by  seeing  in  the  newspapers  an  account  of 
the  death  of  his  former  master,  Richard  Arkwright,  Esq., 
of  Wilersley  Castle,  near  Cromford,  Derbyshire. 

This  gentleman  succeeded  to  all  the  possessions  and 
numerous  spinning  factories  of  Sir  Richard,  his  father,  in 
1792,  then  estimated  at  the  value,  capital  stock  included, 
of  about  two  million  Jive  hundred  thousand  dollars.  By 
his  extensive  spinneries  in  Cromford,  Bakewell,  and 
Manchester,  he  is  said  to  have  derived  a  clear  income  of 
500,000  dollars  annually.     The  extensive  works  at  Man- 


104  THE    CONTRAST. 

Chester  he  disposed  of  sometime  after  his  father's  death, 
to  his  managers,  Messrs.  Barton  and  Simpson,  who  both 
realized  large  fortunes.  In  about  1837 — 8,  he  disposed 
of  his  spinning  works  at  Bakewell;  but  those  at  Crom- 
ford,  near  his  own  residence,  he  carried  on  to  the  time 
of  his  death. 

Mr.  Arkwright  died  possessed  of  not  less  than  thirty- 
five  million  dollars!  in  personal  property  alone,  irrespec- 
tive of  landed  estates. 

As  an  individual  capitalist,  there  is  not  one  in  Europe 
at  the  present  time  who  can  approach  within  half  the  dis- 
tance, excepting,  perhaps,  the  excellent,  no  less  than 
wealthy  Mr.  Solomon  Heine,  of  Hamburg;  who,  accord- 
ing to  general  repute,  is  estimated  to  concentrate  in  his 
own  person  the  representation  of  money  values  to  the 
amount  of  $20,000,000.  It  must  be  remembered,  how- 
ever, that  this  sum  represents  the  whole  property  of  Mr. 
Heine,  whereas,  the  late  Mr  Arkwright  was  possessed  of 
landed  estates  to  the  value  of  seven  or  eight  millions  of 
dollars,  beyond  the  amount  at  which  the  personality  is 
rated. 

Immensely  wealthy  as  are  the  Barings,  the  Roths- 
childs, the  Hopes,  &c,  of  Europe,  there  is  not,  has  not 
been  one,  that  could  be  placed  at  all  in  the  comparison; 
not  all  the  magnificent  fortunes  drawn  off,  with  all  the 
vast  capital  remaining  still  in  the  princely  house  tof  Bar- 
ing, would  reach  to  the  amount;  not  all  the  capital  of  all 
the  Rothschilds  throughout  Europe  together,  would  equal 
more  than  one  half  the  enormous  mass  of  wealth  left  be- 
hind by  the  late  Mr.  Arkwright. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  Mr.  Arkwright  was 
the  son  of  Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  who,  about  the  year 
1778  was  a  common  barber  in  Preston,  Lancashire,  shav- 
ing for  one  cent  per  head.  On  one  occasion  the  Preston 
barber  had  to  make  his  appearance  in  a  court  of  justice; 


CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES.  105 

but  his  clothing  was  so  mean  that  he  was  ashamed  to  go, 
and  being  too  poor  to  purchase  any  thing  new,  his 
friends  and  customers  entered  into  a  subscription  of  one 
shilling  each,  to  put  him  in  decent  plight. 

How  many  thousands  of  human  beings  have  been  hur- 
ried off  to  an  untimely  grave,  in  scraping  together  for 
these  gentlemen,  father  and  son,  the  enormous  sum  of 
upwards  of  forty  millions  of  dollars,  time  will  not  reveal. 

It  is  this  sort  of  work  that  has  made  England  so  full 
of  cripples  and  paupers. 


LETTER    XIV. 

CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES. 

At  a  meeting  recently  held  in  Bradford,*  in  Yorkshire, 
to  take  into  consideration  the  deplorable  condition  of 
12,000  female  factory  operatives  employed  in  that  town, 
mention  was  made  of  the  high  moral  and  social  condi- 
tion of  the  female  operatives  of  Lowell.  The  speakers 
strongly  urged  the  necessity  of  a  like  state  of  things  being 
brought  about  among  the  female  operatives  of  England. 
However  desirable  this  object  may  be,  however  praise- 
worthy the  motives  and  exertions  of  those  benevolent  in- 
dividuals by  whom  the  movement  has  been  commenced, 
still  I  feel  convinced,  and  that  conviction  is  founded  upon 
a  life  of  practical  knowledge,  that  the  object  sought  is 
beyond  their  power  to  obtain.     Much  good,   it  is  true, 

*  In  the  history  of  Bradford,  lately  published  by  John  James,  it  is  stated 
that  ./ice  sixths  of  the  persons  employed  in  the  factories  of  this  town  and 
neighborhood,  are  females. 


106  CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES. 

may  be  the  result  of  their  endeavors  to  ameliorate  the 
condition  of  my  unhappy  countrywomen,  and  so  far  it  is 
desirable  to  proceed;  but  the  full  measure  of  their  wishes 
it  is  all  but  impossible  to  gain;  at  least,  so  long  as  the 
government  of  the  country  remains  as  at  present. 

It  may  be  asked,  why  it  is  next  to  impossible.  I  will 
endeavor  to  show.  Let  us  suppose  one  case,  which  will 
serve  our  present  purpose.  It  is  truly  said,  that  the  fe- 
male operatives  of  Lowell  are  the  daughters  of  farmers 
in  comfortable  circumstances;  it  is  also  well  known,  that 
those  of  Bradford  are  the  daughters  of  poor  people.  Sup- 
pose, then,  two  single  men,  in  the  full  vigor  and  prime  of 
life,  whom  we  will  call  Mr.  Lowell  and  Mr.  Bradford;  the 
one  being  in  New  England,  the  other  in  Old  England; 
but  in  every  other  respect,  similarly  circumstanced  in 
life,  should  at  one  and  the  same  time  take  it  into  their 
heads  to  marry.  In  doing  so,  we  will  suppose  that  they 
are  actuated  by  the  purest  principles,  and  fully  deter- 
mined to  do  every  thing  in  their  power  to  make  their  re- 
spective families  comfortable  and  happy.  Let  us  also 
suppose,  that  after  a  certain  time,  each  of  the  brides 
bring  their  happy  husbands  a  daughter,  and  after  other 
periods  of  time,  a  second,  and  a  third.  What  effect  will 
this  repeated  addition  have  upon  the  two  families?  Upon 
that  of  Mr.  Lowell  the  effect  will  be  trifling,  so  far  as 
financial  matters  go.  The  increase  of  family  will  prob- 
ably have  stimulated  him  to  increased  exertion  and  econ- 
omy, and  with  the  great  facilities,  always  at  hand  in  New 
England,  he  may  have  become,  by  the  time  his  eldest 
daughter  arrives  at  the  age  of  four  years,  "  a  farmer  in 
comfortable  circumstances." 

Upon  that  of  Mr.  Bradford  the  effect  will  be  very  differ- 
ent, for  he  will  not  only  have  to  provide  increased  food, 
clothing,  lodging,  &c,  but  for  extra  taxation,  which  every 
child  will  bring  upon  him,  from  the  hour  of  its  birth.     So 


CONDITION  OF  FEMALE  OPERATIVES.        107 

that  by  the  time  Mr.  Lowell  has  become  a  respectable 
farmer  in  comfortable  circumstances,  Mr.  Bradford,  all 
his  exertions  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  will  have 
become  "  a  very  poor  man." 

Look  there,  reader,  at  little  Miss  Lowell,  plump  and 
active,  full  of  life  and  vigor,  neat  as  a  new  made  pin, 
about  to  be  introduced  to  the  primary  school.  In  this 
school  she  will  remain  several  years,  surrounded  by  all 
the  beneficial  influences  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
her  character,  and  this,  too,  without  any  expense  to  her 
parents,  beyond  the  purchase  of  a  few  books.  After  she 
has  finished  at  the  primary,  she  will  be  taken  to  a  second, 
and  afterwards,  if  it  be  thought  necessary,  to  a  finishing 
school.  We  will  now  suppose  she  has  arrived  at  the  age 
of  fifteen,  and  if  she  has  made  good  use  of  her  time  and 
privileges,  she  will  be  in  possession  of  a  fund  of  useful 
knowledge,  calculated  to  smooth  her  path  through  time 
and  eternity. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  poor  Miss  Bradford,  for  her  parents 
have  become  poor;  consequently  she  must  be  poor,  too. 
See  how  the  little  timid  thing  creeps  along,  as  if  she  felt 
afraid  to  look  a  person  in  the  face.  One  might  almost 
think  her  looks  said,  I  could  eat  a  buttered  cake  if  I  could 
get  it.  And  though  neat  and  clean,  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
her  thin,  spare  clothing,  is  far  from  being  sufficient  to 
protect  her  from  the  wet  and  cold.  Let  us  ask  her  a 
few  questions.  Pray,  where  are  you  going,  my  little 
dear? 

"  I  am  going  to  find  old  Betty." 

Who  is  old  Betty  ? 

"The  woman  who  minds  our  house  while  father  and 
mother  go  to  the  factory." 

And  has  she  gone  and  left  you  ? 

"  Yes,  and  little  sister  and  baby  are  both  crying." 

By  this  time    old   Betty  returns,   drags  her  into  the 


108  CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES. 

house,  and  scolds  her  for  leaving  the  children.  This  sort 
of  life  continues  till  Miss  B.  is  six  years  of  age,  when  it 
is  concluded  to  discharge  old  Betty,  on  the  score  of  econ- 
omy, and  leave  the  younger  children  in  the  charge  of 
Miss  B.,  getting  a  neighbor  to  look  in  upon  them  occa- 
sionally. 

At  nine,  Miss  B.  is  taken  into  the  factory,  having  ob- 
tained a  certificate  from  a  surgeon  for  that  purpose.  In 
this  school  she  is  surrounded  from  the  first  hour  by  influ- 
ences of  the  worst  description;  and  if  she  escapes  con- 
tamination, it  may  be  looked  upon  almost  as  a  miracle. 

At  fifteen,  (the  age  at  which  we  left  Miss  Lowell,)  she 
will  have  had  six  years  of  factory  life,  and  may  be  said 
to  be  well  skilled,  not  only  in  her  daily  toil,  but  also  in 
much  of  the  vice  and  immorality  of  her  elder  companions. 

Let  us  now  suppose  that  Miss  Lowell  takes  it  into  her 
head  to  go  into  the  factories,  for  the  purpose  of  "  provid- 
ing herself  with  a  marriage  dowry." 

She  enters  her  name,  and  is  received  as  a  rational  and 
accountable  being,  having  a  soul  to  be  lost  or  saved. 
Full  provision  is  made  in  every  way  for  her  temporal  and 
spiritual  welfare.  She  is  provided  with  every  thing  she 
needs  to  make  her  comfortable,  and  receives  good  wages 
besides.  It  is  on  these,  and  only  these  conditions  that 
she  consents  to  go,  and  why?  Because  she  need  not  go 
to  work  unless  she  and  her  parents  are  so  disposed. 

In  a  few  years  she  realizes  the  object  of  her  wishes, 
saves  a  few  hundred  dollars,  quits  the  factories,  and  gets 
married. 

Miss  Bradford,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  enter  the 
factories  from  choice,  but  necessity ;  she  has  no  voice  in 
making  conditions,  but  must  submit  to  such  as  are  of- 
fered. She  is  not  looked  upon  by  her  master  as  an  intel- 
lectual being,  but  as  an  animal  machine.  No  provision 
is  made  for  her  temporal  or  spiritual  welfare,  as  these  are 


CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES.  109 

matters  which  most   manufacturers   trouble    themselves 
very  little  about. 

The  small  pittance  she  receives  as  wages  is  sometimes 
paid  in  money,  sometimes  partly  in  money,  and  the  rest 
in  goods.  With  these  wages  she  has  to  provide  clothes, 
board,  lodging  and  washing,  and  also  pay  her  taxes  to 
Government. 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  Government  of  England 
requires  5,000,000  dollars  toeekly,  in  order  to  enable 
them  to  pay  off  the  interest  of  the  National  Debt,  and 
carry  on  their  Government.  In  order  to  raise  this  enor- 
mous demand,  every  man,  woman  and  child,  must  pay  a 
part;  it  matters  not  whether  they  earn  twenty  cents, 
twenty  shillings,  or  twenty  dollars  a  week ;  a  part  of  it 
must  be  given  up  to  Government. 

Taking  these  things  into  consideration,  it  is  no  wonder 
if  Miss  B.  should  find  herself  at  the  close  of  the  year  as 
poor  as  at  the  beginning.  Neither  is  it  surprising  to  find 
her  under  the  painful  necessity  of  following  her  occupa- 
tion till  her  strength  fails,  and  she  is  turned  off  just  the 
same  as  a  machine  of  wood  and  iron,  to  be  replaced  with 
some  new  comer. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  my  object  in  writing  this, 
is  to  endeavor  to  reduce  the  Lowell  females  to  a  level 
with  those  of  Bradford,  and  elsewhere.  God  forbid  that 
any  such  base  and  unworthy  motive  should  enter  the 
mind  of  any  man,  much  less  one  who  has  been  such  a 
great  sufferer  by  the  system  he  is  describing.  My  object 
is  simply  to  show  the  condition  of  my  countrywomen,  and 
the  insufficiency  of  the  means  about  to  be  employed  by  a 
few  benevolent  persons  to  effect  a  radical  change  in 
their  condition.  Before  any  permanent  good  can  be 
done,  it  will  be  necessary  to  pay  off,  or  in  some  way 
erase  from  the  statute  book  their  enormous  National1 
Debt;  reduce  the  extravagant  expenditures  of  the  Gov- 
10 


110  CONDITION    OF    FEMALE    OPERATIVES. 

ernment;  and  give  to  the  working  man  a  voice  in  making 
the  laws  by  which  he  is  governed.  These  and  other  re- 
forms are  needed.  They  are  the  chief  cause  of  the  evils 
complained  of.  Remove  the  cause,  and  the  effects  will 
cease. 

The  effects  of  factory  labor  on  females  are  in  part  il- 
lustrated by  the  following  anecdote,  related  to  me  by  a 
respectable  linen  and  woolen  draper  of  Ashton-under- 
lyne,  with  whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  dining. 

"A  poor  woman  came  into  my  shop,"  said  he,  "one 
Saturday  night  in  September  last,  (1841)  for  the  purpose 
of  purchasing  some  small  article.  She  had  a  child  about 
twelve  months  old  in  her  arms,  which  she  set  upon  the 
counter,  with  its  back  against  a  pile  of  goods,  in  order 
that  she  might  have  her  hands  at  liberty  to  examine  the 
article  she  wanted.  The  child  was  not  noticed  by  the 
shopmen  till  it  became  troublesome;  and  being  Saturday 
night,  and  a  great  many  women  in  the  shop,  I  asked 
whose  child  it  was,  but  none  of  the  women  present  would 
take  to  it.  A  thought  instantly  struck  me  that  some  one 
had  been  playing  the  trick  of  child-dropping  with  me; 
however,  as  we  were  busy,  I  ordered  the  child  to  be 
brought  into  my  parlor,  and  laid  upon  the  sofa,  upon 
which  you  are  now  sitting,  where  it  soon  fell  fast  asleep. 
About  an  hour  afterwards,  a  woman  came  into  the  shop 
in  great  haste,  and  inquired  if  she  had  left  a  child  there. 
She  was  brought  into  the  parlor  to  see  if  the  one  lying 
asleep  on  the  sofa  was  hers.  As  soon  as  she  saw  it,  she 
cried  out,  '  Yes;  bless  thee,  it  is  thee  !  '  She  was  then 
asked,  how  she  came  to  leave  it,  and  by  what  means  she 
had  discovered  her  loss.  To  which  she  answered,  '  That 
while  attending  to  the  purchase  she  had  been  making, 
she  had  quite  forgotten  her  child.  That  she  had  been 
through  the  market,  and  in  many  other  shops,  and  had 
bought  all  the  things  she  wanted,  but  never  once  found 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.       Ill 

out  her  loss  till  she  got  home,  and  wa9  asked  by  her  hus- 
band where  she  had  left  the  child.  To  which,  she  said, 
Why,  the  child  is  up  stairs  asleep  in  bed,  to  be  sure. 
But,  being  convinced  to  the  contrary,  and  that  she  had 
taken  it  out  with  her,  she  began  to  think  where  she  had 
left  it.  There  was  then  no  alternative  but  going  round 
to  every  shop  at  which  she  had  called;  and,  at  last,  she 
came  to  the  right  one.'  She  had  left  the  child  in  the 
same  manner  as  people  sometimes  forget  their  umbrellas, 
or  a  paper  parcel.  So  you  may  judge,"  said  the  draper 
to  me,  "  what  is  the  effect  of  the  system  of  factory  labor 
upon  these  poor  people  and  their  offspring!  " 

I  was  not  surprised  to  hear  this  account,  well  kno 
as  I  did,  that  the  mothers  only  see  their  infants*-  dt  fii 
ing,  noon  and  night,  except  they  are  brought  to  the  fac- 
tory to  be   suckled  in  some   other  part  of  the  day ;   and 
that  for  the  most  part,  the  children  are  in  the  care  of 
strangers. 


LETTER  XV. 

VALUE    OF    HUMAN    LIFE    IN    ENGLISH    FACTORIES. 

In  the  year  1769,  Mr.  Richard  Arkwright  obtained  his 
first  patent  for  spinning  cotton  yarn,  and  commenced 
manufacturing  by  machinery.  This  was  the  beginning 
of  the  Factory  System.  Innumerable  examples  are  fur- 
nished by  history  to  show  that  at  this  time  the  inhabitants 
of  the  North  and  Midland  counties  of  England,  were  a 
healthy,  hardy,  strong,  robust  people. 

It  was  to  these  counties  that  the  government  looked 
for  supplies  for  the  Army  and  Navy,   more  particularly 


112      VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

than  to  any  other.  In  1777,  eight  years  after  the  intro- 
duction of  Arkwright's  (so  called)  invention,  Manchester 
raised  a  regiment  of  volunteers. 

This  fine  body  of  men  was  called  the  Seventy-second, 
or  Manchester  Regiment;  and  their  gallant  conduct  on 
the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  when  it  was  attacked  by  the  Span- 
iards, and  defended  by  General  Eliot,  obtained  for  them 
lasting  renown.  On  their  return  to  England,  they  were 
received  in  Manchester  with  enthusiasm,  and  their  colors 
were  deposited  with  much  ceremony  in  the  Collegiate 
Church,  from  whence  they  were  removed  to  the  College, 
where  they  still  remain  as  trophies  of  the  gallantry  of  the 
regiment,  and  of  the  patriotic  ardor  of  the  town. 

Contrast  the  above  with  a  statement  made  by  a  re- 
spectable surgeon,  engaged  to  examine  men  for  the  mili- 
tia, a  few  years  ago;  that  out  of  200  men  examined,  only 
four  could  be  said  to  be  well-formed  men,  and  these  four 
stated,  in  answer  to  questions  from  the  surgeon,  that  they 
had  never  worked  in  a  factory.  This  difference  is  believed 
by  most  people  to  be  owing  to  the  factory  system. 

According  to  the  most  moderate  calculations  that  have 
been  made,  there  are,  at  the  present  time,  upwards  of 
10,000  bad  cases  of  decrepitude  in  the  factory  districts^ 
each  of  which  can  be  clearly  traced  to  the  factories  alone* 
This  conclusion  has  been  arrived  at  by  taking  a  census 
of  the  cripples,  in  a  few  particular  towns,  and  comparing 
these  accounts  with  the  whole  district. 

These  cases  of  decrepitude  are  of  two  kinds,  viz  :  crip- 
ples made  from  long  standing  and  over  exertion,  and 
those  made  by  accidents  with  machinery. 

With  respect  to  cripples  from  over-working,  many  er- 
roneous opinions  are  afloat,  even  among  the  work-people 
themselves;  the  chief  of  which  is,  that  some  particular 
machines  are  more  liable  to  make  cripples  than  others. 
To  a  very  limited  extent  this  may  be  true  \  but  my  expe* 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.        113 

rience  leads  me  to  suppose,  that,  generally  speaking,  de- 
formity is  occasioned  simply  by  standing  in  one  position 
a  greater  length  of  time  than  the  Divine  Author  of  our 
being  ever  intended  we  should  do.  I  am  strengthened 
in  this  opinion,  by  the  history  of  the  cripples  I  have  met 
with  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  whether  they  have 
been  brought  up  in  the  woolen,  worsted,  flax,  cotton,  or 
silk  mill;  nine  out  of  every  ten  having  been  compelled  to 
work  from  morning  to  night,  without  being  allowed  to  sit 
down  for  a  minute. 

Let  us  turn  our  attention,  for  a  moment,  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  lower  extremities  of  the  human  frame.  There 
is  a  beautiful  arch  of  bones  formed  in  the  foot,  on  the 
middle  of  which  the  main  bone  of  the  leg  is  planted;  in 
walking,  the  heel  and  ball  of  the  great  toe  touch  the 
ground.  The  bones  in  the  arch  of  the  foot  are  of  a 
wedge-like  form,  the  same  as  the  stones  which  form  the 
arch  of  a  bridge.  This  bridge  receives  the  weight  of  the 
body,  and  by  its  elastic  spring,  prevents  any  shock  being 
felt  in  leaping,  &c.  The  weight  of  the  body  being  too 
long  sustained  in  factory  working,  this  wedge-like  form 
is  lost;  the  bones  give  way,  fall  in,  and  the  elastic  spring 
of  the  foot  is  forever  gone ;  the  inside  of  the  sole  of  the 
foot  touches  the  ground,  constituting  that  deformity  which 
is  called  the  splayfoot.  The  ligaments  of  the  ankle  joint 
then  give  way,  and  the  ankle  falls  inwards  or  outwards, 
as  the  case  may  be.  The  ligaments  of  the  knee  joint 
give  way,  causing  what  is  called  "knock  knee'd;"  or, 
where  the  leg  is  bent  outwards,  it  constitutes  that  deform- 
ity called  "  boiv-legged."  After  the  ligaments  have 
given  way,  then  the  bones  also  bend,  but  not  so  much  in 
the  middle  as  at  the  extremities.  This  bending  of  the 
bones  of  the  lower  extremities  is  sometimes  so  striking, 
that  occasionally  six,  or  even  twelve  inches  of  height  are 
lost  in  consequence;  which  may  be  proved  in  this  man- 
10* 


114      VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IK  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

ner.  A  man  of  correct  proportions  will,  in  general,  be 
about  the  same  height  as  the  length  of  the  arms  from  tip 
to  tip  of  the  long  fingers,  when  extended.  I  have  fre- 
quently seen  cases  of  factory  deformities,  in  which  the 
length  of  the  arms  thus,  was  six  inches  more  than  the  al- 
titude of  the  body;  in  my  own  case,  this  difference  is 
eight  inches.  I  have  observed,  that,  so  far  from  the  ratio 
of  these  cripples  being  in  proportion  to  the  weight  of  the 
work  to  be  done,  it  is  directly  the  contrary;  the  woolen, 
which  is  the  heaviest  employment,  furnishing  the  fewest 
cripples,  and  the  silk,  which  is  the  lightest  of  all,  the 
greatest  number. 

A  person  going  through  a  silk  mill,  and  viewing  the 
operations  of  the  various  branches  of  the  manufacture, 
would  suppose  that  no  human  beings  could  be  deformed 
and  crippled  by  such  light,  clean,  and  beautiful  work; 
consisting  of  little  more  than  knotting  threads  of  silk, 
clipping  the  edges  of  ribbon,  and  other  things,  which 
seem  to  a  casual  observer,  more  suitable  for  a  lady's 
parlor  than  a  factory.  But  when  we  look  more  nar- 
rowly into  the  matter,  we  find  causes  for  the  awful  ef- 
fects of  factory  labor  in  silk  mills.  It  may  seem  a  very 
nice  thing  for  a  child  or  young  person  to  be  placed  near 
a  frame  and  have  nothing  to  do  but  knot  the  threads  of 
silk  as  they  break;  but,  if  we  take  into  consideration 
that  they  are  to  remain  close  by  that  frame  for  twelve 
hours  per  day,  and  never  sit  down,  our  astonishment  at 
the  great  number  of  silk  mill  cripples  will  vanish.  Let 
us  suppose  that  these  young  persons  had  nothing  to  do 
whatever,  but  were  compelled  to  walk  over  a  space  of 
ground  four  yards  long,  and  one  yard  wide,  for  twelve 
hours  per  day,  without  having  leave  to  sit  down,  or  rest 
themselves  in  any  way,  except  by  leaning  their  knees 
against  a  rail  which  runs  along;  and  this  duty  to  be  per- 
formed, day  after  day,  and  year  after  year,  the   conse- 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.       115 

quences,  I  venture  to  affirm,  would  be  the  same  in  both 
cases.  I  have  also  observed,  that  where  seats  arc  pro- 
vided, and  extra  hands  kept,  so  as  to  give  the  children 
time  to  rest  occasionally,  (as  in  the  worsted  mill  of 
Messrs.  Wood  and  Walker,  of  Bradford,)  there  are  no 
cripples  made. 

In  order  to  make  myself  acquainted  with  the  number  of 
cripples  in  Macclesfield,  where  silk  manufacture  is  car- 
ried on  to  a  very  great  extent,  we  had  a  census  taken; 
and  in  this  town,  with  a  population  of  24,000,  197  bad 
cases  were  found. 

Deformities  and  diseases  of  the  spine  are  a  very  com- 
mon consequence  of  working  in  factories.  I  have  never 
seen  any  instances  of  deformities  of  the  arms,  because 
these  limbs  have  not  to  sustain  the  weight  of  the  body. 
But  even  the  arms  share  in  the  general  weakness  and 
debility  arising  from  factory  labor. 

One  evil  arising  from  the  bending  and  curving  of  the 
limbs,  is  the  state  of  the  blood  vessels;  for  if  the  bones 
go  wrong,  the  blood  vessels  must  go  wrong  also.  Nature 
has  provided  a  beautiful  contrivance  for  propelling  the 
blood  to  every  part  of  the  human  frame.  This  is  done 
in  a  well-formed  person  with  perfect  ease,  without  any 
appearance  of  difficulty  whatever.  But  it  is  not  so  with 
factory  cripples.  The  blood  lodges,  as  it  were,  in  cran- 
nies and  corners,  and  the  apparatus  for  forcing  it  along, 
instead  of  being  stronger,  as  in  their  case  required,  is 
weaker,  in  consequence  of  the  weak  state  of  the  body. 
Hence  we  find  that  friction,  with  hair  gloves,  in  many 
cases  is  absolutely  necessary. 

Females  suffer  greatly  in  after  life,  especially  in  the 
all-important  operation,  arising  from  the  malformation  of 
the  bones  of  the  pelvis,  while  standing  at  the  frames 
when  young. 


116       VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  second  class  of  factory  cripples, 
viz  :  those  made  so  by  machinery. 

Accidents  by  machinery  arise  from  three  causes,  viz  : 
from  cleaning  the  machinery  while  in  motion,  from  the 
carelessness  of  the  manufacturer  in  not  having  the  ma- 
chinery properly  guarded,  and  from  the  carelessness  of 
the  work-people  in  passing  and  re-passing  the  machines. 
Little  children,  whose  intellects  are  not  sufficiently  ad- 
vanced to  enable  them  to  form  a  proper  estimate  of  the 
dangers  by  which  they  are  surrounded,  show  their  tem- 
pers, have  their  quarrels,  and  push  each  other  about, 
when  almost  in  immediate  contact  with  the  most  dreadful 
kinds  of  machinery ;  accidents  of  a  very  shocking  descrip- 
tion often  occur  from  this  cause;  in  addition  to  this,  the 
young  children  are  allowed  to  clean  the  machinery,  ac- 
tually while  it  is  in  motion;  and  consequently  the  fingers, 
hands  and  arms,  are  frequently  destroyed  in  a  moment. 
Upright  and  horizontal  shafts,  if  unprotected,  cause  great 
destruction  to  life  and  limb,  especially  to  females,  whose 
flowing  skirts  get  wound  round  while  revolving  at  the 
rate  of  100  to  200  times  a  minute.  Death  is  frequently 
instantaneous. 

One  class  of  accidents  arises  from  the  shuttle  in  power- 
loom  weaving.  In  large  rooms  where  there  may  be  up- 
wards of  1000  shuttles  flying  to  and  fro  at  one  time,  the 
accidents  from  this  cause  are  numerous.  The  shuttles 
are  tipped  with  steel,  and  travel  with  great  velocity,  and 
if  anything  turns  them  out  of  their  proper  course,  they  in 
many  cases  pounce  right  upon  the  head  of  the  opposite 
weaver,  and  not  unfrequently  turns  the  eye  completely 
out  of  its  socket  on  to  the  cheek.  I  have  known  many 
people  who  have  lost  one  eye  from  this  cause;  one  young 
man  of  my  acquaintance  is  quite  blind,  having  lost  one 
eye  by  the  shuttle,  and  the  other  by  sympathy. 

In  order  to  make  this  matter  a  little  more  clear,  let  us 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.        117 

suppose  a  loom  weaving  a  piece  of  common  shirting. 
The  warp,  or  longitudinal  threads,  are  divided  in  two 
equal  numbers,  or  in  other  words,  that  all  the  odd  threads, 
counting  from  the  side  of  the  warp,  viz  :  the  first,  third, 
fifth,  Sec,  move  up  and  down  together.  So,  likewise,  all 
the  even  threads,  viz  :  the  second,  fourth,  sixth,  &c. 
Now,  if  we  suppose  that  by  a  movement  of  the  loom  the 
odd  threads  are  made  to  ascend,  and  the  even  threads  to 
descend,  they  will  form  a  sufficient  space  between  the 
rows  of  threads  for  the  shuttle  to  pass  through,  and  leave 
behind  it  a  thread  of  weft.  The  next  movement  of  the 
loom  will  be  to  knock  close  up  the  weft  left  by  the  shuttle, 
and  reverse  the  order  of  the  threads  of  the  warp,  or  cause 
the  odd  threads  to  descend,  and  the  even  ones  to  ascend. 
This  movement  is  repeated  in  a  power-loom  from  100  to 
130  times  per  minute;  being  as  quick  as  the  eye  can  fol- 
low the  shuttle.  Now,  should  one  of  the  threads  of  the 
warp  break,  (as  is  frequently  the  case)  while  the  loom  is 
in  full  operation,  the  shuttle  will  most  probably  trail  the 
broken  thread  across  the  warp,  which  will  thus  prevent 
the  threads  of  the  warp  passing  each  other  freely.  The 
shuttle  is  thus  checked  on  its  journey,  and  as  it  is  going 
at  a  railway  pace,  it  flies  out,  and  strikes  any  object  that 
may  be  in  its  way,  with  a  force  which  it  would  be  difficult 
to  ascertain.  However,  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  its 
momentum  by  taking  into  account  the  picks  which  it 
makes  per  minute,  which,  I  before  observed,  are  from 
100  to  130;  thus  travelling  at  the  rate  of  nine  miles  per 
hour,  and  making  between  7000  and  8000  turnings  on 
the  road,  from  side  to  side. 

One  young  woman  who  had  lost  an  eye  by  the  shuttle, 
deplored  her  loss  very  much;  she  was  on  the  point  of 
marriage  when  the  accident  took  place.  The  loss  of  her 
eye  disfigured  her  countenance  so  much,  that  her  intend- 
ed husband  altered  his  mind.     Thus  was  this  poor  girl 


118       VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

deprived  of  her  eye  and  her  husband,  by  the  breaking  of 
a  thread  of  cotton  yarn. 

With  respect  to  the  number  of  accidents  by  machinery, 
it  is  difficult  to  speak  with  certainty.  In  looking  over 
the  Reports  of  the  Manchester  Royal  Infirmary  for  1839, 
I  find  entered  on  the  books,  3496  cases  of  accidents  for 
that  year.  Of  these,  2760  were  out-patients,  and  the 
rest  in-patients.  In  the  same  institution,  in  1840,  there 
were  3749,  of  which  3018  were  out-patients. 

It  is  not  to  be  understood  that  all  these  were  mill  ac- 
cidents; but  a  great  many  of  them  are  recorded  as  such, 
and  with  respect  to  others,  we  are  left  in  the  dark.  In 
these  two  years  there  were  fifty-seven  cases  of  amputation 
of  legs,  arms,  hands  and  feet,  in  this  institution. 

From  the  Records  of  the  Leeds  General  Infirmary  for 
1840,  it  appears  there  were  received  into  that  institution 
261  cases  of  mill  accidents,  of  these  eleven  cases  required 
amputation. 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  1840  there  were  on  the  average 
about  five  accidents  a  week,  showing  a  very  large  amount 
of  human  misfortune,  resulting  from  the  want  of  precau- 
tionary measures  with  regard  to  the  machinery  at  which 
the  people  are  employed.  How  much  greater  the  actual 
amount  is,  cannot  be  ascertained;  for  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  this  is  a  return  from  only  one  public  institu- 
tion, where  there  are  several  open  for  the  reception  of 
like  accidents,  independently  of  the  private  houses  to 
which  many  of  the  sufferers  apply  ! 

Mr.  Charles  Trimmer,  assistant  inspector  of  factories, 
speaking  of  accidents,  says,  "  I  have  taken  some  pains 
in  collecting,  for  the  last  three  years,  from  the  books  of 
the  Stockport  Infirmary,  the  number  of  factory  accidents. 
The  number  of  accidents  from  March,  1837,  to  March, 
1838,  in  Stockport,  was  120;  from  1838  to  1839,  134; 
from  March,  1839,  to   1840,  86;  out  of  which  36  were 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.         119 

owing  to  their  being  caught  whilst  cleaning  the  machin- 
ery, the  machinery  being  in  motion  at  the  time." 

"In  the  Report  of  the  Stockport  Infirmary  for  1839, 
(says  Mr.  Trimmer,)  there  is  the  following  passage  : 
'  The  Committee  cannot  conclude  their  Report  without 
stating  a  fact  which  was  painfully  impressed  on  their  minds 
during  the  last  year.  They  refer  to  the  manner  in  which 
accidents  generally  occur  in  our  cotton  mills.  Almost 
all  the  accidents  that  have  come  under  the  notice  of  the 
Committee,  have  happened  in  consequence  of  the  clean- 
ing of  the  machinery  while  it  is  in  motion.  It  is  earnest- 
ly hoped  that  the  owners  and  managers  of  our  manufac- 
tories will  adopt  effectual  means  for  the  discontinuance 
of  so  dangerous  a  practice.'  The  practice,  (adds  Mr. 
Trimmer)  has  not  been  discontinued ;  because,  in  the  fol- 
lowing year,  when  the  cotton  trade  was  very  bad,  there 
were  thirty-six  accidents  in  Stockport,  owing  to  cleaning 
machinery  while  it  was  in  motion."  He  adds,  "  that  of 
340  cases,  he  only  knows  of  two  in  which  the  manufac- 
turers have  made  any  reparation  or  compensation  to  the 
injured  party  !  " 

I  have  selected  these  three  institutions,  to  show  the 
ratio  of  mill  accidents  treated  in  them,  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  there  are  a  great  number  of  other  in- 
stitutions in  the  factory  districts,  and  that,  therefore,  the 
cases  here  mentioned  give  but  a  very  imperfect  idea  of 
the  whole  amount  of  suffering  from  accidents  by  machin- 
ery. 

The  following  distressing  factory  accidents  came  under 
my  personal  notice,  in  a  single  journey,  made  a  few  years 
since.  Two  young  men  were  killed  on  the  spot;  two 
other  young  men,  and  one  young  woman,  died  in  a  few 
days,  from  injuries  received;  one  woman  lost  her  left 
arm,  another  her  right  arm;  one  man  lost  his  leg,  another 
his  hand;   and  many  lost  two  and  three  fingers  each. 


120       VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

Such  statements  as  have  from  time  to  time  come  before 
the  public  respecting  the  factories  of  England,  could  not 
be  circulated  but  upon  undeniable  authority;  and  even 
then,  many  are  inclined  to  doubt  their  accuracy.  A  few 
years  ago  the  stories  in  circulation  were  so  shocking  to 
the  feelings,  that  men  were  employed  for  the  purpose  of 
proving  their  truth  or  falsehood. 

In  this  way  two  gentlemen  of  unblemished  character 
and  reputation,  viz  :  P.  Ashton,  M.  D.,  and  John  Gra- 
ham, Surgeon,  undertook  to  examine  the  work  people, 
one  by  one,  employed  in  six  factories  of  Stockport.  Their 
report  was  afterwards  laid  before  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  by  that  committee  received,  accept- 
ed and  printed.  This  report  is  a  valuable  one,  as  show- 
ing the  state  and  conditions  of  the  people  employed  in 
these  six  factories.  The  factories  were  taken  as  a  fair 
sample  of  all  in  the  town.  From  this  report,  I  have  con- 
densed with  great  labor,  the  following  particulars. 

The  following  table  will  show  the  number  of  persons 
employed,  with  the  age  at  which  they  commenced  work- 
ing. 


Age  at  which  they  began  to  ivork 

in  the  Factories. 

Employed. 

s 

■ 
cis 

e 

9 

00 
E 

00 

3 

5 

3 

© 

m 

V 

"3 

« 

V 

03 

i 

e 

B 

OJ 

a 

al 

p-> 

>> 

>-> 

>> 

>> 

S-. 

>> 

> 

£ 

F, 

jH 

«# 

»n 

lO 

r* 

CO 

cv 

© 

o 

< 

6 

4 

35 

96 

147 

143 

112 

102 

151 

33 

429 

394 

823 

The  average  age  of  these  operatives  at  the  time  the 
examination  took  place,  was  eighteen  years.  The  av- 
erage time  worked  in  factories  was  nine  years  and 
seventeen  days  each.  In  the  previous  twelve  months, 
182  males,  and  204  females,  had  been  off  work  in  conse- 
quence of  sickness;  and  the  average  duration  of  sickness 
was  about  four  weeks  and  a  half  each. 


VALUE  OF  HUMAN  LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES.  121 

Highest  temperature  in  the  mills  85  degrees.     Lowest, 
ditto,  52.     Mean,  ditto,  65,  75. 

The  following  is  a  tabular  view  of  their  condition. 

Complaint.  Males.         Females. 

Healthy 89  87 

Sickly  and  delicate 142  172 

Troubled  with  a  cough 83  73 

"           "     scrofula 15  12 

Rheumatic  affection 6  1 

Bowel  complaint I  1 

Difficulty  of  breathing 30  18 

Asthma       ...» 5  1 

Consumption —  1 

Pains  in  the  head 7  18 

"         "      back 1  — 

"         "      breast 7  4 

"         "      legs 1  3 

Swelled  legs —  2 

"       ankle-joints 17  23 

"       knee-joints 5  6 

Both  knees  turned  in 15  2 

Right  knee  turned  in 13  15 

"         "out 1  — 

Left  knee  turned  in 1  2 

"     ""         "out 1  — 

Lame  of  both  legs —  1 

Stunted  in  growth 39  21 

Bad  eyes 3  1 

Swelled  neck  glands —  4 

Lost  one  arm  by  machinery     ...  1  1 

"     a  thumb  by        do            ...  1  — 

Lame  arm  by             do            ...  1  — 

"      hand  by           do            ...  1  — 

"      hip  by              do             ...  1  — 

"      leg  by              do            ...  —  1 

Crooked  thigh 1  — 

Curved  legs 1  — 

11 


122       VALUE  OF  HUMAN   LIFE  IN  ENGLISH  FACTORIES. 

Hernia 1  — 

Distorted  Spine •  —  1 

Absent  through  sickness     ....         3  1 

These  statements  need  no  comments. 

No  sooner  are  they  worked  up  in  this  way,  and  ren- 
dered unable  to  earn  their  living,  than  they  are  cast  off, 
their  places  being  supplied  by  new  comers. 

Knowing  these  facts,  who  can  wonder  at  there  being 
10,000  cripples  in  the  factory  districts? 

There  is  no  provision  made  by  the  manufacturers  for 
the  support  ofthese  unfortunate  persons,  after  being  ren- 
dered useless.  Had  they  sustained  their  injuries  while 
fighting  for  their  country,  they  might  have  looked  forward 
to  Chelsea  or  Greenwich  Hospital;  but  in  vain  we  look 
for  such  asylums  for  the  mutilated  factory  cripples. 
There  are  no  such  institutions  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  The  Union  workhouse  and  the 
grave,  are  the  only  asylums  for  such  cases. 

Thus  we  behold  in  a  Christian  country,  a  land  which 
boasts  of  being  the  glory  and  admiration  of  the  world, 
thousands  of  human  beings,  mutilated  and  crippled,  ema- 
ciated, ruined  in  health,  their  spirits  broken,  their  minds 
and  reasoning  powers  toppling  from  their  seats,  and 
many  of  them  catching,  like  drowning  men,  at  straws,  to 
save  themselves  from  what  would  be  a  happy  release 
from  their  miserable  situation;  crying  out  with  Job — 
M  Wherefore  is  light  given  to  him  that  is  in  misery,  and 
life  to  the  bitter  in  soul?  "  Contrast  this  with  what  man 
was  intended  to  be.  We  are  told  that  man  was  made 
"in  the  image  of  God;  "  that  God  "  saw  his  substance 
yet  being  imperfect,"  and  that  in  "His  book  all  our 
members  are  written;  "  that  he  was  made  "  a  little  lower 
than  the  angels,"  and  "  crowned  with  glory  and  honor," 
and  placed  in  this  lower  world   "  to  have   dominion  over 


STATISTICAL    FACTS.  123 

the  works  of  his  hands."  If,  as  we  are  told,  all  our 
members  are  written  in  His  book,  what  an  awful  reckon- 
ing will  some  of  these  manufacturers  have  to  meet !  How 
will  they  be  able  to  account  for  the  lives,  and  limbs, 
which  they  have  heedlessly,  if  not  wantonly  sacrificed? 


LETTER  XVI. 

STATISTICAL    FACTS INCREASE  OF    MACHINERY DITTO  OF 

INDIVIDUAL     LABOR AND     EARLY    SUPERANNUATION     OF 

OPERATIVES. 

Spinning.  Prior  to  the  year  1767,  spinning  was  per- 
formed by  hand,  every  spinner  tended  one  spindle;  but 
after  the  discovery  of  Hargreaves,  and  the  subsequent 
improvements  of  Arkwright,  the  spinning  frame  increased 
as  follows.  First  it  contained  12  spindles,  then  24,  48, 
144,  324,  648,  and  lastly  1028.  After  this,  the  system 
of  coupling  2,  3,  4,  and  even  5  pairs  of  spinning  mules 
was  introduced.  In  1841,  a  friend  of  mine  was  working 
five  pair  of  spinning  mules  in  a  factory  in  Manchester, 
containing  in  all  3360  spindles.  He  was  thus  doing  the 
work  of  5  men,  and  breaking  down  his  own  constitution 
at  the  same  time.  His  wages  were  about  27  shillings 
per  week,  ($6,48)  which  is  about  as  much  as  each  of  the 
5  men  could  earn  on  a  single  pair  of  mules  in  1829. 
Another  friend  was  spinning  at  the  same  time  in  Bolton, 
on  3  pair  of  frames  containing  2400  spindles.  It  is  said 
that  working  these  frames  will  break  the  strongest  con- 
stitution in  six  years. 

In   Manchester  there   were  in   1829,  2650  spinners, 


124  STATISTICAL    FACTS. 

working  1,229,204  spindles;  in  1841,  1037  spinners 
worked  1,431,619. 

In  Bolton  in  1835,  there  were  30  cotton  factories  at 
work,  in  which  were  601,226  spindles;  giving  employ- 
ment to  798  spinners,  and  2527  piecers.  In  1841,  of  40 
factories,  38  were  working,  in  which  were  751,555  spin- 
dles, employing  737  spinners  and  2457  piecers. 

In  addition  to  the  increase  of  spindles,  there  is  also  a 
great  advantage  gained  in  the  increase  of  speed.  In 
1817,  a  machine  for  spinning  cotton  yarn,  called  a  thros- 
tle, with  twelve  dozen  spindles,  would  spin  one  hank 
(containing  840  yards  of  cotton  thread)  per  spindle,  per 
day,  which  was  considered  a  fair  day's  work.  In  1841, 
the  same  sort  of  machine,  worked  by  the  same  number 
of  hands,  and  in  which  are  eighteen  dozen  spindles,  will 
spin  four  hanks  per  spindle,  per  day,  of  the  same  descrip- 
tion of  yarn. 

According  to  McCullock,  there  were  in  the  united 
kingdom  in  1834,  upwards  of  9,000,000  of  spindles  em- 
ployed in  the  cotton  manufacture. 

Weaving.  In  1784,  at  a  public  table  in  Matlock,  in 
Derbyshire,  the  conversation  turned  upon  the  subject  of 
the  newly  invented  machines  for  spinning  cotton  yarn. 
It  was  observed  by  some  of  the  company  present,  that  if 
this  new  mode  of  spinning  by  machinery  should  be  gen- 
erally adopted,  so  much  more  yarn  would  be  manufac- 
tured than  our  own  weavers  could  work  up,  that  the  con- 
sequence would  be  a  considerable  export  to  the  conti- 
nent, where  it  might  be  woven  into  cloth  so  cheaply  as  to 
injure  the  trade  in  England.  Dr.  Cartwright  being  one 
of  the  company,  replied  to  this  observation,  that  the  only 
remedy  for  such  an  evil  would  be  to  apply  the  power  of 
machinery  to  the  art  of  weaving  as  well  as  to  that  of 
spinning,  by  contriving  looms  to  work  up  the  yarn  as 
fast  as  it  was  produced  by  the  spindle.     Some  gentlemen 


INCREASE    OF    MACHINERY.  125 

from  Manchester  who  were  present,  and  who,  it  may  be 
presumed,  were  better  acquainted  with  the  subject  of  dis- 
cussion, would  not  admit  of  the  possibility  of  such  a  con- 
trivance, on  account  of  the  variety  of  movements  re- 
quired in  the  operation  of  weaving.  Dr.  Cartwright, 
who,  if  he  ever  had  seen  weaving  by  hand,  had  certainly 
paid  no  particular  attention  to  the  process  by  which  it 
was  formed,  maintained  that  there  was  no  real  impossi- 
bility in  applying  power  to  any  part  of  the  most  compli- 
cated machine  (producing  as  an  instance,  the  automaton 
chess-player);  and  that  whatever  variety  of  movements 
the  art  of  weaving  might  require,  he  did  not  doubt  but 
that  the  skilful  application  of  mechanism  might  produce 
them.  The  discussion  having  proceeded  to  some  length, 
it  made  so  strong  an  impression  on  Dr.  Cart  Wright's 
mind,  that  immediately  on  his  return  home  he  set  about 
endeavoring  to  construct  a  machine  that  should  justify 
the  proposition  he  had  advanced,  of  the  practicability  of 
weaving  by  machinery. 

In  1787,  three  years  after  the  above  conversation  took 
place,  the  Rev.  gentleman  established  a  spinning  and 
weaving  factory  in  Doncaster.  This  factory  contained 
20  power  looms,  10  for  weaving  muslin,  8  for  common 
cottons,  1  for  sail-cloth,  and  1  for  colored  check;  the 
machinery  was  all  worked  by  a  bull,  and  not  till  1789  by 
steam  power. 

Imperfect  as  Dr.  Cartwright's  early  machinery  may 
seem  to  be,  we  find  several  eminent  individuals  compli- 
menting him  upon  the  beauty  of  its  productions,  and 
among  others,  Dr.  Thurlow,  bishop  of  Durham,  to  whose 
lady  the  inventor  had  presented  a  piece  of  muslinette. 
The  bishop  thus  writes  in  Oct.  1787: — "Mrs.  Thurlow  has 
determined  to  put  herself  into  a  dress  made  out  of  the 
piece  of  muslinette  you  were  so  good  to  present  her,  and 
which,  for  its  novelty,  and  being  the  first  fruits  of  your 
11* 


126  INCREASE    OF    MACHINERY. 

labor  and  art,  she  prizes  beyond  the  richest  productions 
of  the  east." 

Having  made  application  to  the  legislature,  Dr.  Cart- 
wright,  in  1809,  received  a  parliamentary  grant  of 
£10,000,  ($50,000)  "for  the  good  service  he  had  ren- 
dered the  public  by  his  invention  of  weaving." 

There  is  no  knowing  to  what  extent  this  invention  may 
extend.  I  remember  being  very  much  surprised,  when 
for  the  first  time  I  walked  over  a  weaving  room  in  one  of 
the  cotton  mills  of  Lancashire.  The  room  contained 
1058  power  looms,  all  busily  at  work,  excepting  a  few 
that  were  undergoing  repairs.  These  looms  give  em- 
ployment to  521  weavers,  chiefly  young  men  and  women; 
22  overlookers,  18  twisters,  6  winders,  2  drawers,  and 
2  heald-pickers;  in  all,  571  persons.  These  looms  are 
capable  of  weaving  3900  cuts  per  week,  of  69  hours; 
each  cut  or  piece  averaging  46  yards  long,  36  inches 
wide,  52  picks,  or  threads  of  weft  to  the  inch.  I  was  ta- 
ken through  a  store-room  adjoining,  nearly  filled  with 
goods.  I  was  told  that  there  were  about  300,000  pieces 
in  that  store  ready  for  the  market. 

In  1835,  there  were  116,801  power  looms  in  Great 
Britain;  in  1841,  the  number  was  about  130,000,  attend- 
ed by  about  50,000  persons,  chiefly  women  and  children. 

In  1814,  a  hand-loom  weaver  could  weave  2  pieces  of 
nine-eighths  shirting  per  week,  each  24  yards  long  and 
100  shoots  of  weft  to  the  inch. 

In  1823,  a  steam-loom  weaver  could  weave  7  pieces;  in 
1826,  12  to  15  pieces;  in  1833,  with  an  assistant,  18 
pieces  similar  to  the  above,  in  the  same  space  of  time. 

By  returns  made  to  Parliament,  dated  28th  of  March, 
1836,  and  20th  of  February,  1839,  it  appears  that  in 
three  counties  only,  viz.,  Lancashire,  Cheshire,  and  the 
West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  the  steam  and  water  power 
to  turn  machinery  in  factories  was  increased,   in  three 


EARLY  SUPERANNUATION  OF  OPERATIVES. 


127 


years,  from  45,836  to  65,395  horse  power,  or  42J  per 
cent.  While  the  number  of  hands  employed  in  those 
factories  had  only  increased  in  the  same  period,  from 
242,099  to  292,179;  that  is,  only  20£  per  cent." 

The   following  table   will  show  the   increase  of  trade, 
and  the  decrease  of  wages. 


Lbs.  of  cotton  consumed. 

Hand-weaver's  wages 

1797,     . 

.     23,000,000,    .     . 

.     26s.  8d  a  week. 

1804,     . 

.     61,364,158,    .     . 

.     20s.  Od 

<( 

1811,     . 

.     .     90,309,668,    .     . 

.     14s.  7d 

n 

1818,     . 

.   162,122,705,    .     . 

.       8s.  9d 

<< 

1825,     . 

.     .  202,546,869,    .     . 

.       6s.  4d 

ii 

1835,     . 

.  333,043,464,    .     . 

5s.  6d 

ti 

1840,     . 

.  460,000,000,    .     . 

.       5s.  6d 

<( 

The  above  is  taken  from  McCulloch,  Porter,  and 
Fielden. 

In  the  year  1839,  there  were  employed  in  the  facto- 
ries of  England,  419,590  persons  of  all  ages  and  both 
sexes.  Of  these,  242,296  were  females,  and  177,294 
males.  Of  this  number,  112,119  females,  and  80,768 
males,  were  under  18  years  of  age. 

According  to  the  demonstrations  of  one  of  the  ablest 
mathematicians  in  Europe,  who  was  engaged  to  go  down 
to  the  factory  districts  for  the  purpose  of  making  calcu- 
lations on  the  spot,  a  great  proportion  of  these  people 
walk,  in  attending  the  machinery,  from  20  to  30  miles 
per  day,  in  addition  to  their  various  other  duties. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  these  people  die  early  in 
life;  but  should  they  live  to  40,  they  are  rendered  inca- 
pable of  doing  their  duty  in  the  mills. 

In  1832,  in  Lanark,  of  1600  persons  employed  in  the 
mills,  only  10  were  above  45  years  of  age. 

In  1839,  in  42  mills  in  Stockport   and  Manchester,  in 


128  WAGES. 

which  22,094  hands  were  employed,    only    143!!   were 
above  45  years  of  age. 

In  the  large  factory  towns,  a  great  proportion  of  the 
poor  persons  selling  oranges,  nuts,  &c.  in  the  streets,  are 
worn  out  factory  workers; — thus  in  Manchester,  of  37 
hawkers  of  nuts,  &c,  32  were  factory  hands;  of  28 
hawkers  of  boiled  sheep's  feet,  22  were  factory  hands. 
Hard  return  for  a  life  of  toil  and  industry. 


LETTER    XVII. 

WAGES STRIKES      AND      TURN-OUTS     FOR     WAGES MEANS 

USED    BY    THE    MANUFACTURERS     TO     PREVENT     THEM 

TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM CONCLUSION. 

Wages.  Smith,  in  his  "  Wealth  of  Nations,"  has  the 
following  important  truth.  "  What  are  the  common  wa- 
ges of  labor,  depends  everywhere  upon  the  contract  usu- 
ally made  between  two  parties,  whose  interests  are  by  no 
means  the  same;  the  workman  desires  to  get  as  much, 
and  the  master  to  give  as  little  as  possible.  The  former 
is  disposed  to  combine  in  order  to  raise,  the  latter  in 
order  to  lower  the  wages  of  labor." 

In  no  country  has  this  truth  been  exemplified  in  a 
more  striking  manner,  than  in  England.  Trades  Unions 
have  been  introduced,  on  the  one  hand,  for  the  purpose 
of  protecting  the  wages  of  the  laborers;  and  combinations 
of  the  manufacturers  on  the  other,  to  reduce  wages  to 
the  lowest  possible  amount. 

The  following  table  will  shew  the  amount  of  money  lost 
in  the  following  strikes. 


STRIKES    AND    TURN-OUTS    FOR    WAGES.  129 

Cotton  Spinners  of  Manchester,  1810,     .     .     .      £224,000 

"             "                    "            1826,     .          .     .  200,000 

"             "                    "            Since     ....  176,000 

Spinners  of  Preeton 74,313 

Town  of  Preston 107,096 

Glasgow  Cotton  Spinners 47,000 

Loss  to  the  City  of  Glasgow 200,000 

Loss  to  the  County  of  Lanarkshire 500,000 

Strike  in  the  Potteries 50,000 

Leeds  Mechanics'  Strike,  Twelve  Months  .     .     .  187,000 

Wool  Combers  of  Bradford,  Ten  Months     .     .     .  400,000 

Colliers 50,000 

£2,216,009 

About  eleven  millions  of  dollars;  and  if  all  the  other 
strikes  and  turn-outs  were  taken  into  account,  it  would 
swell  the  amount  to  over  20  millions  of  dollars,  spent  in 
a  vain  attempt  to  protect  the  wages  of  labor.  Whilst 
the  English  capitalist  can  make  use  of  the  law  to  crush 
the  producer,  the  producer  can  never  make  use  of  the 
law  to  protect  himself;  witness  the  case  of  the  Dorches- 
ter laborers,  and  Glasgow  cotton  spinners,  so  well 
known;  and,  also,  the  case  of  the  Stockport  weavers,  in 
•1840.  The  Stockport  cotton  masters  offered  a  reduction 
of  2s.  in  the  12s.;  and,  availing  themselves  of  the  power 
given  to  them  by  the  combination  laws,  caused  several  of 
the  turn-out  weavers  to  be  arrested  for  conspiracy.  For 
what?  one  count  of  the  indictment  was,  "That  they 
conspired  to  raise  their  wages."  On  this  they  were 
tried,  convicted,  and  imprisoned.  We  might  also  in- 
stance the  case  of  the  six  poor  girls  in  the  flax  mills  at 
Dundee,  described  on  pages  91  and  92. 

Let  us  see  now  what  steps  have  been  taken  by  the 
manufacturers  to  reduce  wages. 

In  the  appendix  (C)  to  the  first  annual  report  of  the 
Poor  Law  Commissioners,   the  reader  will  find  a  letter 


130  STRIKES    AND    TURN-OUTS    FOR    WAGES. 

from  Edmund  Ash  worthy  Esq.,  a  wealthy  cotton  manu- 
facturer, from  which  I  make  the  following  extracts: 

Turton,  near  Bolton,  9th  of  6th  month,  1834. 
Respected  friend,  E.  Chad  wick  : — I  take  the  liberty  of  forward- 
ing for  consideration,  a  few  observations  on  the  new  poor  law 
bill ;  the  leading  principles  of  which  I  most  cordially  approve.  * 

*  *  I  would  not  venture  to  suggest  an  opinion  to  you,  who  have 
already  so  ample  a  store  of  evidence,  were  it  not  that  I  feel  so 
much  the  vast  importance  of  the  subject. 

Full  employment  in  every  department  was  never  more  easy  to 
be  found  than  now,  consequently  wages  have  advanced  in  most 
operative  employments,  and  particularly  so  in  the  least  skilful. 

#  #  #  This  bespeaks  a  scarcity  of  laborers  here ;  at  the  same 
time,  great  complaints  are  made  of  surplus  population  in  the  ag- 
ricultural counties,  whilst  here  our  deficiency  is  made  up  by  a 
vast  influx  from  Ireland,  of  ignorant,  discontented,  and  turbulent 
people.  *  *  *  *  It  is  often  the  practice  here,  if  a  mill  owner  is 
short  of  work-people,  to  apply  to  overseers  of  the  poor  and  work- 
houses, for  families  supported  by  the  parish  ;  of  late  this  has  not 
always  been  attended  with  success  ; ,  (these  manufac- 
turers are  supposed  to  be  the  Messrs.  Gregg,)  who  are  extensive 
cotton  spinners  and  manufacturers,  having  two  establishments  in 
Cheshire  and  three  in  Lancashire,  have,  like  ourselves,  been  in  this 
practice  many  years;  and  being  this  spring  short  of  hands  at  most 
of  their  establishments,  sent  a  person  who  had  occasionally  gone 
out  for  them  during  a  period  of  20  years,  to  seek  families  in  the 
neighboring  parishes ;  but  this  year  he  could  not  find  an  overseer 
in  all  the  county  of  Cheshire,  who  was  willing  to  allow  (compel) 
a  family  to  leave  his  parish. 

I  am  most  anxious  that  every  facility  be  given  to  the  removal 
of  laborers  from  one  county  to  another,  according  to  the  demand 
for  labor  ;  this  would  have  a  tendency  to  equalize  (reduce)  wages, 
as  well  as  prevent  in  degree,  some  of  the  turn-outs,  &c,  which 
have  been  of  late  so  prevalent. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  a  letter  addressed  by 
Robert  Hyde   Gregg,   Esq.,   another  cotton  manufactu- 


STRIKES    AND    TURN-OUTS    FOR  WAGES.  131 

rer,  to  Edwin  Chadwick,   Esq.,  Secretary  to  the  Poor 
Law  Commission. 

Manchester,  \lth  September,  1834. 

I  have  for  some  time  thought  of  addressing  you  on  the  same 
matter  as  my  friend  Ashworth  did,  some  time  ago  ;  viz.,  the  pro- 
priety of  opening  a  communication  between  our  (strange  to  say) 
underpeopled  districts  and  the  southern  overpeopled  ones. 

It  is  at  this  moment  a  most  important  suggestion,  and  deserves 
to  be  put  into  immediate  operation. 

At  this  moment  our  machinery  in  one  mill  has  been  standing 
for  twelve  months  for  want  of  hands.  In  another  mill  we  cannot 
start  our  new  machinery  for  the  same  want. 

The  suggestion  I  would  make  is  this ;  that  some  official  chan- 
nel of  communication  should  be  opened  in  two  or  three  of  our 
large  towns  with  your  office,  to  which  the  overcharged  parishes 
might  transmit  lists  of  their  families.  Manufacturers  short  of  la- 
borers, or  starting  new  concerns,  might  look  over  the  lists  and 
select,  as  they  might  require  (for  the  variety  of  our  wants  is 
great,)  large  families  or  small  ones,  young  children  or  grown  up,, 
men  or  widows,  or  orphans,  &c. 

If  this  could  be  done,  I  doubt  not,  in  a  short  time,  as  the  thing 
became  known  and  tried,  we  should  gradually  absorb  a  consider- 
able number  of  the  surplus  laborers  of  the  south. 

The  English  laborers  are  much  preferred  to  the  Irish,  and 
justly  so.  We  cannot  do  with  refuse  population,  and  insubordi- 
nate paupers.  Hard  working  men,  or  widows  with  families, 
would  be  in  demand. 

This  gentleman  concludes  his  letter  by  expressing  a 
fear  that  should  there  be  any  increase  in  the  demand  for 
laborers,  it  will  increase  the  trades  unions,  drunkenness 
and  high  wages. 

A  third  extract  I  shall  make  from  a  letter  of  Henry 
Ashworth,  Esq.,  a  brother  to  the  first  mentioned;  he  is 
also  a  manufacturer. 

Turton,  near  Bolton,  2d  month  13th,  1835, 
Respected  friend,  E.  Chadwick: — I  have  received  thy  letter, 
and  the  published  account  of  the  destitute  condition  of  32  poor 


132  STRIKES    AND    TURN-OUTS    FOR    WAGES. 

families.  I  wish  they  were  here,  or  as  many  of  them  as  are  wil- 
ling to  work. 

I  may  safely  state  that  there  is  in  this  neighborhood  a  greater 
scarcity  of  work-people  than  I  have  ever  known,  and  this  fact 
was  never  more  universally  acknowledged. 

I  am  happy  to  say,  that  I  never  heard  of  any  sort  of  privation 
among  them,  (the  laborers)  except  what  has  been  occasioned  by 
their  strikes  on  account  of  wages. 

A  great  many  other  letters  from  manufacturers  might 
be  quoted,  did  our  limits  allow.  They  all  express  the 
same  sentiments,  viz.,  that  it  is  impossible  for  too  many 
hands  to  be  sent — they  are  wanted,  and  must  be  had. 

The  Poor  Law  Commissioners,  after  deliberating  upon 
the  above  suggestions,  issued  the  following  circular. 

u  The  Poor  Law  Commissioners  are  desirous  of  facili- 
tating it,  (the  removal  of  families)  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  and  they  therefore  wish  to  acquaint  you,  (the 
manufacturers)  that  in  case  of  your  wanting  the  labor  of 
even  a  single  family ,  the  commissioners  proffer  the  use  of 
the  means  at  their  disposal,  for  facilitating  the  supply  of 
your  wants  in  this  respect.,, 

Thus  the  reader  will  see  that  when  the  manufacturers 
could  not  induce  a  single  overseer  to  give  up  their  poor  to 
be  worked  in  the  factories,  they  had  recourse  to  the 
Poor  Law  Commissioners,  who  here  offer  them  all  the 
means  at  their  disposal  to  enable  them  to  effect  their 
purpose. 

It  would  occupy  too  much  of  our  space  were  we  to  fol- 
low in  detail,  this  scheme  of  the  manufacturers  to  reduce 
the  wages  of  labor.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  our  purpose 
to  say,  that  an  office  was  opened  in  Manchester,  under 
the  superintendence  of  a  Government  Agent,  R.  M.  Mug- 
geridge,  Esq.;  that  a  printed  circular  invoice  was  sent  to 
every  parish  where  there  was  a  surplus  of  poor  families, 
which  invoice  was  filled  up  by  the  parish  officer  and  re- 


STRIKES    AND    TURN-OUTS    FOR    WAGES.  133 

turned  to  Manchester.  These  invoices,  containing  the 
age,  sex,  &c.  of  each  family,  were  kept  in  the  office  by 
Mr.  Muggeridge,  and  exhibited  to  the  manufacturers, 
who  affixed  their  name  and  address  to  the  invoice  of  such 
families  as  would  suit  them;  after  which,  these  precious 
documents  were  again  transmitted  to  the  parishes,  with 
a  request  that  they  might  be  sent  down  to  the  manufac- 
turers forthwith.  The  term  of  their  engagement  was  for 
three  years. 

In  this  manner  10,000  persons,  mostly  agricultural  la- 
borers, were  removed  from  their  homes  and  the  scene* 
of  their  childhood,  and  in  a  great  majority  of  cases,  en- 
tirely against  their  will,  (being  poor  they  were  supposed 
to  have  no  will,)  to  be  immured  in  the  cotton  mills  at 
Lancashire,  &c. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  eyes  to  the  closing  scene  in  this 
tragedy.  From  the  Report  of  Mr.  Muggeridge,  dated 
July,  1837,  we  learn  that — "The  condition  of  the  labor- 
ers who  were  induced  to  migrate  under  your  sanction,, 
would,  I  am  sure,  at  any  time,  be  a  subject  of  great  in- 
terest and  anxiety  to  you  (the  Commissioners) ;  and  at 
the  present  period,  this  interest  and  anxiety  cannot  but 
be  increased  by  the  altered  circumstances  in  which  the 
district  is  placed,  compared  with  those  which  led  to  the 
introduction  of  migration." 

"Nearly  every  one  of  the  possible  causes  anticipated, 
as  likely  to  lead  to  the  ultimate  ill  success  or  defeat  of 
this  branch  of  the  Commission,  has  been  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  realized.  #  *  *  The  entire  trade  of  the  dis- 
trict was  all  at  once  paralyzed ;  distrust  and  want  of  con- 
fidence suspended  for  a  season  almost  all  commercial  op- 
erations; the  demand  for  additional  labor  ceased;  large 
numbers  of  the  native  work-people  were  temporarily 
thrown  out  of  occupation;  and  the  extended  preparations 
12 


134  MEANS    USED    BY    THE    MANUFACTURERS 

which  had  been  made  for  increasing  the  means  of  em- 
ployment, were  deferred  or  abandoned." 

I  will  not  harass  the  feelings  of  my  readers  by  going 
into  a  detail  of  the  great  hardships  and  sufferings  endured 
by  this  class  of  poor  people,  in  parting  from  friends  and 
home,  in  their  passage  of  200  or  300  miles  in  open  boats 
or  wagons,  in  being  herded  together  and  lying  on  straw 
in  the  ware-houses  of  the  manufacturers  on  their  arrival, 
or  arising  from  small  pox,  fevers,  accidents  by  machin- 
ery, or  a  want  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturers 
afterwards.  They  were  such  as  would  scarcely  be  cred- 
ited as  having  taken  place  in  England,  a  land  always 
boasting  of  her  humanity,  and  such  as  England  herself 
would  not  have  tolerated  in  any  other  country,  without 
an  effort  to  suppress  or  ameliorate  them. 

The  reader  may  imagine  the  extent  to  which  this  evil 
had  been  carried,  from  the  following  remarks  made  by 
Sir  Robert  Peel,  in  Parliament,  on  Tuesday  evening, 
January  27th,  1846. 

"  I  will  now,"  said  he,  "direct  the  attention  of  the 
house  to  a  law  which  has  been  greatly  complained  of  by 
the  agricultural  interest;  I  mean  the  present  law  of  set- 
tlement. It  happens  under  the  present  law,  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  population  of  rural  districts  are  induced  to 
move  into  the  manufacturing;  and  it  happens  frequently, 
that  the  power,  the  labor,  the  best  part  of  a  man's  life, 
who  so  removes,  are  consumed  in  that  manufacturing  dis- 
trict, and  thus  all  the  advantages  of  his  strength  and  good 
conduct,  and  industry,  are  derived  by  the  manufacturing 
districts  during  the  period  of  his  residence.  A  revulsion 
then  takes  place  in  trade;  and  what  course  is  taken  with 
respect  to  the  man  who  moved  there  in  more  prosperous 
times?  The  man  with  his  wife  and  family  are  sent  back 
to  the  rural  districts;  and  the  individual  who  spent  the 
best  part  of  his  life  as  a  manufacturing  operative,  is  re- 


THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM.  135 

turned  to  the  place  from  whence  he  came;  returned  unfit 
for  an  agricultural  operative.  Under  these  circumstan- 
ces the  man  is  sent,  against  his  will,  to  a  new  home,  at  a 
period  when  all  his  communications  with  that  district 
have  been  interrupted,  and  with  no  means  of  earning  an 
honest  livelihood,  a  proceeding  which  must  shock  the 
feelings  of  every  man  who  witnesses  it. 

M  At  present,  when  a  man,  situated  as  the  individual  I 
have  described,  begins  to  fail  in  a  manufacturing  district 
— perhaps  from  having  undergone  extreme  labor,  or  from 
sickness  or  accident,  and  apprehension  begins  to  be  en- 
tertained that  he  may  become  a  permanent  incumbrance 
on  the  parish,  means  are  promptly  taken  for  an  early  re- 
moval of  that  man.  Again,  immediately  on  the  death  of 
a  laboring  man  in  a  manufacturing  district,  of  which  he 
happens  not  to  be  a  native,  his  widow  and  children  can 
be  removed  to  the  parish  in  which  they  had  a  previous 
settlement. 

V  We  propose,  that  after  a  man  has  labored  for  a  peri- 
od of  five  years  in  a  district,  his  settlement  shall  not  be 
in  the  place  where  he  had  originally  a  settlement ;  but  in 
the  district  to  which  his  industry  and  labor  had  been 
given  during  that  five  years.  That  there  shall  not  only 
be  no  power  to  remove  that  man,  but  that  there  shall  be 
no  power  to  remove  his  wife  or  his  children,  legitimate 
or  illegitimate,  under  sixteen  years  of  age." 

In  this  manner  the  manufacturers  gained  their  point 
with  regard  to  breaking  up  trades  unions,  and  reducing 
the  wages. 

The  ten  hoar  bill.  I  perceive  by  an  account  in  the 
newspapers,  that  the  English  Parliament  have  at  length 
agreed  on  a  law  for  limiting  the  hours  of  labor  in  facto- 
ries to  ten  per  day;  to  go  into  operation  in  May,  1848. 
This  ought  to  be  a  wise  and  good  law,  considering  the 
length  of  time  it  has  been  before  Parliament,    (namely, 


136  THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM. 

32  years,)  the  amount  of  talent  employed  in  framing  it, 
and  the  enormous  sums  of  money  expended  in  fostering 
it  in  its  embryo  state,  till  it  became  a  thing  of  life.  It 
may  be  useful  and  profitable  to  some,  if  we  take  a  hasty 
retrospective  glance  at  this  bill  in  its  various  stages, 
from  its  first  framing  up  to  the  present  time. 

In  the  year  1802,  the  late  Sir  Robert  Peel,  member  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  cotton  manufacturer,  pro- 
cured an  act  (42  Geo.  3,  c.  73)  to  regulate  the  labor  of 
apprentice  children  worked  in  factories.  At  this  time, 
the  children  in  factories  were  mostly  apprentices,  ob- 
tained from  parishes  in  London  and  other  large  towns. 

The  Apprentice  Act,  naturally,  but  gradually  wore  out 
the  custom  of  taking  apprentices,  for  as  the  masters 
would  work  the  long  hours,  they  now  had  recourse  to  the 
children  of  parents  on  the  spot.  This  movement  was 
hastened  by  the  application  of  Watt's  steam  engine, 
which  enabled  the  manufacturer  to  erect  his  factories  in 
large  towns,  instead  of,  as  formerly,  on  the  banks  of 
streams. 

The  evils  sought  to  be  remedied  by  the  above  act  still 
continuing,  Sir  Robert  again  came  before  Parliament  on 
the  13th  of  June,  1815,  and  proposed  a  ten  hour  bill,  for 
regulating  the  hours  of  labor  in  cotton  factories;  and  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  agreed  to  ten  and  a 
half.  This  was  the  first  movement  on  record  that  I  am 
acquainted  with,  for  a  ten  hour  bill. 

In  the  following  year,  1816,  the  same,  or  a  similar  bill 
was  referred  to  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. The  evidence  taken  before  this  committee  estab- 
lished many  important  facts  concerning  the  hardships 
and  cruelties  endured  by  the  children  employed  in  facto- 
ries, both  apprentices  and  those  who  were  not  apprenti- 
ces. 

The  evidence  of  John  Moss,  overseer  of  Backbarrow 


THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM.  137 

Mill,  is  to  this  effect, — that  the  apprentice  act  was  con- 
stantly set  at  naught.  The  witness  did  not  even  know  of 
it.  The  children  in  the  mill  were  almost  all  apprentices 
from  London  parishes;  they  were  worked  from  5  in  the 
morning  till  8  at  night,  all  the  year  round,  with  only  one 
hour  for  the  two  meals;  in  making  up  lost  time,  they  fre- 
quently worked  from  5  till  10  at  night;  and  invariably 
they  worked  from  6  on  the  Sunday  morning  till  12,  in 
cleaning  the  machinery  for  the  week.  In  speaking  of  the 
consequent  fatigue,  the  evidence  is  this: 

"  Did  the  children  sit  or  stand  at  work?  " 

Stand. 

"  The  whole  of  their  time?  " 

Yes. 

"  Were  there  any  seats  in  the  mill?  " 

None. 

"  Were  they  much  fatigued  at  night?  " 

Yes,  some  of  them  were  very  much  fatigued. 

M  Where  did  they  sleep?  " 

In  the  apprentice  house. 

"  Did  you  inspect  their  beds?" 

Yes,  every  night. 

"  For  what  purpose?" 

Because  there  were  always  some  of  them  missing; 
some  might  be  run  away,  others  I  have  sometimes  found 
asleep  in  the  mill. 

"  Upon  the  mill  floor?" 

Yes. 

"Did  the  children  frequently  lie  down  upon  the  mill 
floor  at  night  when  their  work  was  over,  and  fall  asleep 
before  their  supper?" 

I  have  found  them  frequently  upon  the  mill  floor  asleep, 
after  the  time  for  bed. 

This,  and  other  similar  evidence,  was  quite  sufficient 
to  justify  Sir  Robert  in  applying  for  a  ten  hour  bill.     The 
12* 


138  THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM. 

bill,  however,  did  not  pass  then,  but  was  suffered  to 
slumber  till  July,  1819;  but  this  (59  Geo.  3,  c.  66)  did  not 
apply  to  any  but  cotton  factories. 

After  the  passing  of  this  Act,  there  were  four  others  to 
amend,  to  alter,  or  to  render  valid  this  one;  but  these 
were  all  repealed  by  the  1  and  2  William,  4.  c.  39,  com- 
monly called  Sir  John  Hobhouse's  Act.  The  principal 
provision  of  this  act  is  one  which  makes  it  unlawful  to 
work  in  a  factory,  any  child  who  is  under  18  years  of 
age,  for  more  than  69  hours  in  a  week;  but  this  act  also 
is  confined  to  cotton  factories. 

In  1832,  the  late  Mr.  Sadler  made  great  efforts  in  favor 
of  the  factory  children.  He  brought  a  bill  into  Parlia- 
ment to  limit  the  hours  of  labor  for  all  under  18  years  of 
age,  to  58  hours  in  the  week;  and  the  provisions  of  this 
bill  were  to  extend  to  woollen,  flax  and  silk,  as  well  as 
cotton  mills.  On  moving  the  second  reading,  on  the  13th 
of  March,  he  was  met  by  strong  opposition,  and  aery 
for  investigation.'  He  acceded  to  a  committee  being 
called  out,  of  which  he  became  the  chairman.  Before 
this  committee,  a  mass  of  evidence  was  adduced  which 
surprised  and  astonished  all  who  heard  it  for  the  first 
time.  Physicians,  surgeons,  manufacturers,  overlookers 
and  operatives,  both  male  and  female,  were  examined 
and  the  two  large  volumes  of  evidence  thus  collected, 
will  stand  as  a  lasting  reproach  to  the  country  to  the  lat- 
est time.  Mr.  Sadler,  although  he  labored  almost  day 
and  night,  till  his  health  was  greatly  impaired,  did  not 
obtain  his  much  desired  object. 

It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  about  this  time,  the 
Parliament  passed  an  act  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  Eng- 
lish colonies,  and  not  only  the  name,  but  the  essence  of 
slavery;  for,  in  that  act,  it  has  taken  care  to  provide  that 
no  negro  shall  work  more  hours  in  the  week  than  45, 
which  is  no  more  than  7  1-2  in  a  day.     Now,  if  this  act 


THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM.  139 

of  humanity  was  necessary,  which  no  one  will  doubt,  how 
much  more  necessary  the  58  hour  act  for  the  offspring  of 
Englishmen  ! 

On  the  meeting  of  the  first  reformed  Parliament,  Mr. 
Sadler  not  being  a  member,  Lord  Ashley  was  prompted 
to  take  the  question  in  hand.  He  was  beaten  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Patten,  be- 
cause the  ministers  thought  they  could  protect  the  chil- 
dren without  interfering  with  the  adults. 

It  would  much  exceed  our  present  limits  to  examine  in 
detail,  all  the  various  movements  of  the  friends  and  foes 
of  this  bill  for  the  last  fifteen  years.  Motions  and  counter 
motions  in  the  House,  reports  and  counter  reports  out  of 
it,  have  been  constantly  before  the  public.  Sometimes 
one  party  have  had  the  lead,  and  sometimes  the  other. 
One  now  proposing  to  "  lay  the  axe  at  the  root  and  cut  it 
(the  factory  system)  down;"  another  begging  that  the 
country  would  consider  first  what  sort  of  a  tree  it  was, 
and  look  at  the  fruit  it  had  produced. 

It  is  matter  of  congratulation,  however,  that  the  bill 
has  been  suffered  to  have  an  existence,  if  for  nothing 
more  than  to  test  its  merits  in  removing  the  evils  of  which 
the  factory  people  complain.  Of  its  success  I  have  strong 
reasons  to  doubt. 

If  there  is  any  merit  in  the  ten  hour  system,  the  be- 
nevolent portion  of  the  manufacturers  will  come  in  for 
their  share.  We  find  the  first  man  to  move  in  it  was  a 
manufacturer;  and  since  then,  many  petitions  have  been 
sent  to  the  House,  and  the  ministers,  for  the  bill,  by 
manufacturers.  Lord  John  Russell  presented  petitions 
signed  by  nearly  500  master  manufacturers,  employing 
140,000  hands,  for  the  bill. 

It  is  also  curious  to  observe  that  Sir  Robert  Peel  op- 
posed the  measure j  although  he  is  the  son  of  a  cotton  spin- 


140  THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM. 

ner,  and  a  son  of  the  very  first  man  who  brought  forward 
the  motion  in  Parliament  in  1815  ! 

Among  the  most  prominent  advocates  for  the  bill,  we 
find  the  name  of  Gould,  Oastler,  Fielden,  Sadler,  Rev. 
G.  S.  Bull,  Lord  Ashley,  Wood,  Walker  and  Brother- 
ton;  some  of  these  men  have  spent  large  sums  of  money 
for  their  favorite  object. 

Let  us  now  consider  a  few  of  the  most  prominent  points 
to  be  effected  by  this  measure. 

It  is  expected,  in  the  first  place,  that  a  great  benefit 
will  be  gained  by  the  laborers,  in  point  of  health.  This, 
however,  will  be  much  greater  in  some  instances  than 
in  others.  A  comparative  view  of  the  several  branches 
of  manufacture  into  which  "the  factory  system  "  divides 
itself,  will  enable  us  to  see  this  more  clearly. 

The  material  to  be  manufactured  may  be  summed  up 
under  the  following  names  :  cotton,  flax,  tow,  wool,  wors- 
ted and  silk.  The  three  first  of  these  are  vegetable,  the 
last  three,  animal  substances.  It  is  much  more  healthy 
to  work  the  animal  than  the  vegetable  material. 

Cotton,  it  is  well  known,  is  extremely  light  in  weight, 
and  its  fibre  is  short  and  buoyant.  It  is,  therefore,  from 
the  nature  of  its  staple  to  be  expected,  that  there  will  be 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  "  flyings,"  or  waste  of  the 
cotton,  held  in  suspension  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  cotton 
mill.  These  fine  particles  of  cotton  and  dust  being  taken 
into  the  throat,  lungs  and  stomach,  at  each  inspiration  of 
air  by  the  laborers,  engender  a  morbid  irritability  of 
those  members,  and  ultimately  induce  a  chronic  disease 
called  Gastraglia.  A  fixed  and  incurable  asthma,  con- 
sumption, or  premature  death,  is  frequently  the  result. 
It  is  also  well  known  that  cotton,  but  especially  the  finer 
sort,  will  be  best  manufactured  at  or  about  the  same  tem- 
perature as  that  in  which  it  is  grown;  hence  the  artificial 


THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM.  141 

atmosphere  of  English  cotton  mills  is  extremely  detri- 
mental to  health. 

In  flax  and  tow  mills,  the  same  results  follow  from  much 
the  same  causes,  viz  :  the  breathing  of  the  fine  particles 
of  flax  and  dust  held  in  suspension  in  the  atmosphere  of 
these  mills.  There  is  one  portion  of  fine  flax  mills  which 
is  exempt  from  these  pernicious  ingredients;  but  the  fe- 
male laborers  in  these  rooms  have  to  be  constantly  with 
their  hands  in  hot  water,  surrounded  by  steam,  which 
makes  these  rooms  equally,  or  perhaps  more  unhealthy 
than  the  others.  This  is  in  consequence  of  each  thread 
of  fine  linen  yarn  having  to  pass  through  hot  water,  in 
the  act  of  spinning.  This  makes  the  fibres  of  flax  move 
more  freely  among  each  other,  and  enables  the  manufac- 
turer to  produce  much  finer  thread  than  he  could  possibly 
do  without  the  artificial  heat  applied  in  this  way. 

The  woolen  and  worsted  mills  are  free  from  all  the 
peculiarities  of  the  foregoing  branches  of  trade.  In  wool- 
en mills,  it  is  true,  there  is  an  effluvia  arising  from  the  oil, 
which  is  profusely  used,  in  addition  to  the  natural  animal 
grease,  or  yolk  of  the  wool;  and  likewise  from  the  dye, 
in  which,  in  some  branches,  the  wool  is  prepared  before 
its  processes  commence  in  the  mill.  But  the  worsted, 
which  consists  of  the  longest  fibres  of  the  fleece,  must 
first  be  worked  perfectly  clean,  and  rendered  as  free  as 
possible  from  the  natural  animal  grease,  and  other  impu- 
rities. This  I  think  a  material  point  of  distinction  in 
favor  of  the  healthiness  of  the  worsted  trade. 

The  short  fibres  which  are  disengaged,  and  fly  off  as 
waste  in  the  various  processes  of  the  woolen  and  worsted 
manufacture,  are  not  of  the  like  injurious  nature  as  cot- 
ton "  flyings,"  as  they  are  too  heavy  to  be  held  in  sus- 
pension in  the  atmosphere,  and  accordingly,  instead  of 
floating  in  it,  they  fall  to  the  ground. 

Of  the  silk  manufacture,  I  should  think,  from  the  nature 


142  THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM. 

of  the  material,  and  its  great  value,  one  might  safely 
state  it  to  be  as  cleanly  and  healthy  an  occupation  as 
can  be  followed  in  a  factory.  Of  this,  however,  my  ex- 
perience does  not  warrant  me  in  speaking  with  certainty. 

From  these  observations  it  will  be  clear,  that  to  people 
working  in  factories  all  the  year  round,  subject  to  these 
pernicious  influences,  it  will  be  less  dangerous  to  health 
to  remain  at  work  ten  hours  per  day,  than  twelve  or  thir- 
teen. 

The  second  point  of  consideration  for  working  classes 
is  wages;  for  it  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  well  understood, 
that  a  proportionate  reduction  of  wages  will  be  generally 
adopted  when  the  factory  bill  becomes  law.  The  work- 
ing classes,  who,  though  often  deluded  upon  points  of 
speculative  opinion,  on  account  of  their  partial  informa- 
tion, are  generally  shrewd  and  sound  in  their  practical 
views,  will  see  the  cause  of  the  change,  and  the  alleged 
reason  for  it,  and  will  ultimately,  if  not  immediately,  be- 
come convinced  that  a  reduction  of  their  wages,  without 
a  corresponding  reduction  in  their  taxation,  and  other 
grievous  burdens,  will  not  relieve  them  from  the  oppres- 
sive evils  of  which  they  complain. 

Hence  it  follows,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  the  great 
debt  of  the  nation  must  in  some  way  be  cancelled,  or  re- 
moved, before  the  people  will  feel  themselves  much  ben- 
efited by  the  ten  hour  bill. 

I  know  there  are  some  who  will  ask,  what  has  debt,  or 
taxation  to  do  with  the  hours  of  labor?  and  what  good 
can  come  of  mixing  up  these  questions  with  the  factories 
bill  ?  To  such  I  would  answer,  that  these  evils  are  the 
'tern  root  of  the  matter;  and  the  adequate  causes  of  the 
effects  in  question;  and  so  long  as  they  continue  to  exist 
it  matters  not  whether  men  work  ten  hours  a  day,  or 
twelve;  for  these  will  hang  like  a  mill-stone  about  their 
necks,  weighing  them  down  lower  and  lower — and  not 


THE    TEN    HOUR    SYSTEM.  143 

only  laboring  men,  but  all  the  productive  classes,  till  the 
employers  approach  nearer  and  more  near  every  year, 
to  the  condition  of  the  employed. 

The  next  question  is,  How  are  the  people  to  employ 
their  newly  acquired  leisure?  If  they  resort  to  the  ale- 
house to  spend  the  evening,  or  to  theatrical,  and  other 
places  of  amusement,  or  establishments  for  gambling, 
they  will  have  gained  but  little  by  the  change.  The  na- 
tional system  of  education  may  do  much  for  the  rising 
generation,  but  will  not  affect  the  great  body  of  factory 
operatives  at  present  employed. 

Here  then  is  a  great  field  for  the  exercise  of  the  time 
and  talent  of  the  benevolent  portion  of  the  community, 
for  the  members  of  churches  and  temperance  societies. 

It  would  be  presumption  to  suppose  that  the  modern 
system  of  manufacturing  industry,  which  concentrates 
hundreds  of  individuals  in  the  same  apartments,  can  be 
divested  of  its  inevitably  contingent  evils  and  disadvanta- 
ges by  an  act  of  Parliament;  and  that  the  dense  manu- 
facturing population  of  England  can  be  reduced  to  a 
primitive  state  of  simplicity  and  innocence  of  manners  by 
a  bill  which  leaves  them  in  the  very  midst  of  all  that  is 
opposite  and  counteracting. 

There  are  other  important  points  connected  with  the 
ten  hour  factory  bill — such  as  the  commercial  bearing 
of  the  question,  the  currency,  the  population,  and  a  few 
others — but  these  I  will  leave  to  abler  pens  than  mine, 
my  chief  object  being  to  show  the  effect  it  will  probably 
have  on  the  working  classes. 

The  bill,  taken  by  itself,  is  not  of  so  much  importance 
as  at  first  sight  one  might  be  led  to  suppose;  but  as  a 
link  in  the  great  chain  of  improvements  already  intro- 
duced, and  which  must  be  introduced  into  the  social  sys- 
tem of  England,  it  is  of  great  importance. 


144  CONCLUSION. 


CONCLUSION 


In  taking  a  hasty  glance  at  the  factory  system,  two 
things  are  evident  to  the  most  casual  observer. 

First,  that  the  wealth  of  the  country,  and  especially 
of  certain  districts,  has  increased  greatly  within  the  last 
forty  years; — Second,  that  the  race  of  Englishmen  is 
dwindling  down,  and  degenerating  under  the  effects  of  the 
unremitting  labor,  and  the  insufficient  and  unwholesome 
food  that  their  country's  laws  allows  them  to  enjoy. 

The  creation  of  wealth,  is,  in  many  instances,  the  mul- 
tiplication of  happiness;  but  there  are  circumstances 
which  render  such  creation  anything  but  a  blessing. 
When  the  wealth  created  is  generally  distributed,  it  is 
an  unmixed  good,  and  always  associated  with  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization.  It  is  never  generally  distributed, 
but  when  the  capitalists  employed  are  the  many,  and  not 
the  few. 

That  the  wealth  of  the  country  has  greatly  increased, 
is  not  a  matter  of  doubt.  This  is  not  only  an  acknowl- 
edged truth,  but  it  is  the  boast  of  the  millocracy.  It  is 
at  the  head  of  all  their  demands — "Mark  our  wealth — 
our  importance  to  the  conntry."  This  is  the  language 
in  which  their  demands  are  urged.  It  is  then  agreed  that 
they  are  opulent — that  they  have  vast  estates — that  they 
are  not  only  able  to  buy,  but  have  actually  bought  up  a 
portion  of  the  aristocracy.  We  have  now  one  point  fully 
established,  viz  :  that  the  millocracy  abound  in  riches, 
which  have  been  regularly  accumulating  for  a  series  of 
years.  This  fact  suggests  a  simple  question.  Have  the 
artisans  employed  in  those  branches  of  trade  participated 
in  the  benefits  of  these  riches?  Has  their  condition  been 
progressively  improving?  To  avoid  misconception,  we 
will  descend  to  particulars.     Have  the  wages  of  the  arti- 


CONCLUSION.  145 

sans  gradually  increased  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury? No  !  They  have  declined.  Do  the  artisans  live 
better?  No  !  Many  die,  because  they  are  not  able  to 
live.  Do  they  clothe  better?  No!  Thousands  are  con- 
fined at  home  on  the  Sabbath  day  for  want  of  clothes. 
Have  their  dwellings  become  more  comfortable?  No  ! 
In  some  of  the  largest  manufacturing  towns,  one  seventh 
of  the  population  live  in  cellars.  Has  the  necessity  for 
infant  labor  diminished  with  the  accumulation  of  these 
riches?  No  !  It  has  increased  in  successive  years  to 
such  an  alarming  extent,  that  the  legislature  has  been 
compelled  to  interfere,  to  arrest  the  sacrifice  of  the  mis- 
erable infants.  Are  the  artisans  better  educated?  No  ! 
Two  thirds  cannot  write  their  names,  and  the  proportion 
that  can  read  and  write  becomes  less  in  each  successive 
generation.  Are  they  more  moral?  No  !  Crime  has 
increased  in  a  greater  ratio  than  population.  Has  the 
average  duration  of  life  increased  ?  No  !  It  has  greatly 
diminished.  In  one  of  the  largest  manufacturing  towns 
in  the  kingdom,  in  1822,  1  in  44  of  the  population  died; 
but  in  1837,  1  in  24£.  The  millocracy  intrude  on  public 
consideration  their  importance  as  a  wealthy  class;  they 
state  in  figures  the  immense  capital  which  a  small  num- 
ber can  command;  they  also  admit  the  misery,  wretch- 
edness, immorality,  and  degradation  of  the  artisans. 

One  of  the  favorite  axioms  of  the  millocracy  is,  "  that 
capital  owes  no  allegiance  to  soil,"  and,  consequently,  if 
not  petted,  will  take  wings  and  depart.  The  man  was 
shrewd  who  asked  what  posterity  had  done  for  him;  and 
the  masses  with  equal  shrewdness,  may  ask  the  millocra- 
cy, "what  has  this  capital  done  for  us?  "  We  perceive 
it  in  abundance  in  your  hands,  but  there  is  none  in  ours. 
You  are  legislators  as  well  as  manufacturers — evidence 
that  capital  has  served  your  end,  but  pray  how  are  we 
benefited,  either  by  your  capital  or  legislation?  You 
13 


146  CONCLUSION. 

are  elegantly  clothed,  and  sumptuously  fed,   whilst  we 
are  in  rags,  and  struggling  against  difficulties  to  support 
existence.     Luxuries  and  comfort  await  you  in  your  man- 
sion.     A  poisonous  atmosphere   and  cheerless  poverty 
await  us  in  our  miserable  abode.     You  are  a  new  order, 
influential  from  your  wealth.     We  are  an  old  order,  who 
have  become  beggared  and  exhausted  in  giving  birth  to 
you.     You  are  the  patrons  of  charity.     We  are  the  re- 
cipients of  it.     Contemporaneous  with  the  extension  of 
your  magnificent  factories,  is  the  establishment  of  a  new 
system  of  parochial  relief;   new  modes  of  punishment, 
and  enlarged  conveniences  for  the  reception  of  felons. 
Capital  may  have  given  the   soft  pillow  to  your  head, 
and  a  flowery  path  to  your  footsteps;  to  us  it  has  made 
an  easy  transition  from  the  factory  to  the   prison  and  the 
poor-house  !     The  doctrine,  "  that  capital  owes  no  alle- 
giance to  the  soil,"  is  one  of  the  finest  illustrations  that 
ever  presented  itself  to  the  mind,  of  the  gross  principle 
of  selfishness  pervading  the  thoughts,   feelings,  and  vis- 
ions of  the    millocracy.     Capital  has  increased  beyond 
the  means  of  profitable  employment — it  has  increased  to 
overflowing;   and  contemporaneous  with  this  excess  is  the 
augmentation  of  poverty,  wretchedness,   and  crime,  in 
the  humble  instruments  of  its  creation.     Does  capital  owe 
no  allegiance  to  those  who  have  produced  it?     Is  it,  after 
having  been  wrung  out  of  their  exertions,  to  depart  to 
happier  climes?     Can  no  portion  be  spared  to  alleviate 
the  misery  which  its  production  has  occasioned?     The 
doctrine,  that  capital  owes  no  allegiance  to  the  soil,  is 
certainly  perfectly  new.     It  never,  in  any  country  or  at 
any  time,  in  its  most  shadowy  or  indistinct  form,  suggest- 
ed itself  to  the  mind.     Important  truths  are  generally  got 
at  piecemeal.     One  amount  of  discovery  leads  to  another, 
until  the  truths,  whole  or  in  majestic  fragments,  break 
upon  the  understanding.     This  truth,  however,  sent  no 


CONCLUSION.  147 

shadow  before  it,  nor  had  it  any  labor-pains,  though  labor 
had  produced  it. 

In  ancient  times,  when  capital  abounded,  the  fine  arts 
sprang  into  vigorous  existence.  The  statuary  made  the 
marble  all  but  breathe.  The  painter  with  his  exquisite 
art,  touched  the  canvass  into  life.  The  philosopher 
taught  his  spiritual  and  humanizing  doctrines.  The  poet, 
fresh  from  nature  and  glowing  with  divine  conceptions, 
awoke  impassioned  eloquence  in  the  listening  crowd. 
Capital  produced  these  effects  !  Capital  was  encourage- 
ment, and  owned  an  allegiance  to  every  thing  that  was 
grand,  refined,  or  elevated  in  nature. 

In  more  modern  times,  when  capital  flowed  abundantly 
into  the  lap  of  the  Italian  States,  the  poet,  the  sculptor, 
the  painter,  again  felt  its  invigorating  spirit,  and  threw 
life,  beauty,  and  imagination  over  the  gross  realities  of 
existence.  Religion,  the  instinct  of  our  nature,  arose, 
adorned  in  all  the  captivating  luxury  of  genius.  But 
where  is  now  this  instinctive  feeling — this  love  of  the 
Deity,  that  prompts  to  noble  deeds?  We  ask  not  for  the 
form  which  shows  where  it  is  not.  Why  does  the  admi- 
ration of  man  live  upon  the  achievements  of  the  past?  Is 
human  nature  stunted  in  its  growth?  Is  it  dwindling  into 
insignificance  for  want  of  encouragement  ?  What  !  re- 
move the  capital — leave  the  most  glorious  of  all  fields  un- 
cultivated— the  boundless  faculties  of  the  human  soul  ! 
Is  there  no  duty  involved  in  this  capital  ?  You  acknow- 
ledge none.  Capital,  when  its  creation  has  been  a  bles- 
sing to  its  producers,  has  no  tendency  to  escape.  It 
feels  the  attractive  influence  of  the  soil,  and  remains  with 
it.  It  is  as  loath  to  quit  it,  as  fragrance  the  flower 
around  which  it  lingers. 

I  have  now  brought  to  a  close  my  remarks  upon  the 
English  factory  system;  a  system  which  is  utterly  at  va- 
riance with  the  perfect  law  of  God,  and  which  contains 


148  CONCLUSION. 

within  itself  the  means  of  its  own  destruction.  It  is  now 
about  seventy-seven  years  since  it  first  commenced  under 
Sir  Richard  Arkwright,  and  I  believe  there  are  few  per- 
sons at  the  present  day  so  sanguine  as  to  believe  that  it 
will  live  till  it  is  100  years  old.  A  new  and  a  better  sys- 
tem has  commenced  in  America. 

To  the  people  in  this  country,  therefore,  the  remarks 
contained  in  this  book  are  of  the  utmost  importance.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  America  is  destined  to  become  the 
first  manufacturing  country  in  the  earth.  If  through  the 
good  influence  of  the  valuable  institutions  of  this  highly 
favored  land,  its  inhabitants  are  led  to  choose  the  good 
and  avoid  the  evil,  as  I  am  happy  to  perceive  is  the  case 
in  New  England,  the  factory  system,  so  far  from  being  a 
curse,  will  be  one  of  its  greatest  blessings.  That  such 
may  be  the  case,  may  God  in  his  infinite  mercy  grant. 


VOICE  FROM  THE  FACTORIES. 


i. 

When  fallen  man  from  Paradise  was  driven 
Forth  to  a  world  of  labor,  death  and  care; 
Still,  of  his  native  Eden,  bounteous  Heaven 
Resolved  one  brief  memorial  to  spare, 
And  gave  his  offspring  an  imperfect  share 
Of  that  lost  happiness,  amid  decay; 
Making  their  first  approach  to  life  seem  fair, 
And  giving,  for  the  Eden  past  away, 
Childhood,  the  weary  life's  long  happy  holyday. 

II. 

Sacred  to  heavenly  peace,  those  years  remain  ! 
And  when  with  clouds  their  dawn  is  overcast, 
Unnatural  seem  the  sorrow  and  the  pain 
(Which  rosy  joy  flies  forth  to  banish* fast, 
Because  that  season's  sadness  may  not  last.) 
Light  is  their  grief !  a  word  of  fondness  cheers 
The  unhaunted  heart;  the  shadow  glideth  past; 
Unknown  to  them  the  weight  of  boding  fears, 
And  soft  as  dew  on  flowers,  their  bright,  ungrieving  tears. 
13* 


150  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 


III. 

See  the  Stage-Wonder  (taught  to  earn  its  bread 
By  the  exertion  of  an  infant  skill,) 
Forsake  the  wholesome  slumbers  of  its  bed, 
And  mime,  obedient  to  the  public  will. 
Where  is  the  heart  so  cold  that  does  not  thrill 
With  a  vexatious  sympathy,  to  see 
That  child  prepare  to  play  its  part,  and  still 
With  stimulated  airs  of  gaiety 
Rise  to  the  dangerous  rope,  and  bend  the  supple  knee? 

IV. 

Painted  and  spangled,  trembling  there  it  stands, 
Glances  below  for  friend  or  father's  face, 
Then  lifts  its  small  round  arms  and  feeble  hands, 
With  the  taught  movements  of  an  artist's  grace  : 
Leaves  its  uncertain  gilded  resting  place — 
Springs  lightly  as  the  elastic  cord  gives  way — 
And  runs  along  with  scarce  perceptible  pace — 
Like  a  bright  bird  upon  a  waving  spray, 
Fluttering  and  sinking  still,  whene'er  the  branches  play. 

V. 

Now  watch  !  a  joyless  and  distorted  smile 
Its  innocent  lips  assume;   (the  dancer's  leer  !) 
Conquering  its  terror  for  a  little  while  : 
Then  lets  the  truth  of  infancy  appear, 
And  with  a  stare  of  numbed  and  childish  fear 
Looks  sadly  towards  the  audience  come  to  gaze 
On  the  unwonted  skill  which  costs  so  dear, 
While  still  the  applauding  crowd,  with  pleased  amaze, 
Ring  through  its  dizzy  ears  unwelcome  shouts  of  praise. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  151 

VI. 

What  is  it  makes  us  feel  relieved  to  see 
That  hapless  little  dancer  reach  the  ground; 
With  its  whole  spirit's  elasticity 
Thrown  into  one  glad,  safe,  triumphant  bound? 
Why  are  we  sad,  when,  as  it  gazes  round 
At  that  wide  sea  of  paint,  and  gauze,  and  plumes, 
(Once  more  awake  to  sense,  and  sight,  and  sound,) 
The  nature  of  its  age  it  re-assumes, 
And  one  spontaneous  smile  at  length  its  face  illumes? 

vn. 

Because  we  feel,  for  Childhood's  years  and  strength, 
Unnatural  and  hard  the  task  hath  been; — 
Because  our  sickened  souls  revolt  at  length, 
And  ask  what  infant  innocence  may  mean, 
Thus  toiling  through  the  artificial  scene; — 
Because  at  that  word,  Childhood,  start  to  birth 
All  dreams  of  hope  and  happiness  serene — 
All  thoughts  of  innocent  joy  that  visit  earth — 
Prayer — slumber — fondness — smiles — and  hours  of  rosy 
mirth. 

VIII. 

And  therefore  when  we  hear  the  shrill  faint  cries 
Which  mark  the  wanderings  of  the  little  sweep; 
Or  when,  with  glittering  teeth  and  sunny  eyes, 
The  boy-Italian's  voice,  so  soft  and  deep, 
Asks  alms  for  his  poor  marmoset  asleep ; 
They  fill  our  hearts  with  pitying  regret, 
Those  little  vagrants  doomed  so  soon  to  weep — 
As  though  a  term  of  joy  for  all  was  set, 
And  that  their  share  of  Life's  long  suffering  was  not  yet. 


152  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 


IX. 

Ever  a  toiling  child  doth  make  us  sad; 
'Tis  an  unnatural  and  mournful  sight, 
Because  we  feel  their  smiles  should  be  so  glad, 
Because  we  know  their  eyes  should  be  so  bright. 
What  is  it,  then,  when,  tasked  beyond  their  might, 
They  labor  all  day  long  for  others'  gain, — 
Nay,  trespass  on  the  still  and  pleasant  night, 
While  uncompleted  hours  of  toil  remain? 
Poor  little  Factory  Slaves — for  You  these  lines  com- 
plain ! 

X. 

Beyond  all  sorrow  which  the  wanderer  knows, 
Is  that  these  little  pent-up  wretches  feel; 
Where  the  air  thick,  and  close,  and  stagnant  grows, 
And  the  low  whirring  of  the  incessant  wheel 
Dizzies  the  head,  and  makes  the  senses  reel  : 
There,  shut  forever  from  the  gladdening  sky, 
Vice  premature  and  Care's  corroding  seal 
Stamp  on  each  sallow  cheek  their  hateful  dye, 
Line  the  smooth  open  brow,  and  sink  the  saddened  eye. 

XI. 

For  them  the  fervid  summer  only  brings 
A  double  curse  of  stifling  withering  heat; 
For  them  no  flowers  spring  up,  no  wild  bird  sings, 
No  moss-grown  walks  refresh  their  weary  feet; — 
No  river's  murmuring  sound; — no  wood-walk,  sweet 
With  many  a  flower  the  learned  slight  and  pass; — 
Nor  meadow,  with  pale  cowslips  thickly  set 
Amid  the  soft  leaves  of  its  tufted  grass, — 
Lure  them  a  childish  stock  of  treasures  to  amass. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  153 


XII. 

Have  we  forgotten  our  own  infancy, 
That  joys  so  simple  are  to  them  denied? — 
Our  boyhood's  hopes — our  wanderings  far  and  free, 
Where  yellow  gorse-bush  left  the  common  wide 
And  open  to  the  breeze  ? — The  active  pride 
Which  made  each  obstacle  a  pleasure  seem; 
When,  rashly  glad,  all  danger  we  defied, 
Dashed  through  the  brook  by  twilight's  fading  gleam, 
Or  scorned  the  tottering  plank,  and  leapt  the  narrow 
stream? 

XIII. 

In  lieu  of  this, — from  short  and  bitter  night, 
Sullen  and  sad  the  infant  laborer  creeps; 
He  joys  not  in  the  glow  of  morning's  light, 
But  with  an  idle  yearning  stands  and  weeps, 
Envying  the  babe  that  in  its  cradle  sleeps: 
And  ever  as  he  slowly  journeys  on, 
His  listless  tongue  unbidden  silence  keeps; 
His  fellow  laborers  (playmates  hath  he  none) 
Walk  by,  as  sad  as  he,  nor  hail  the  morning  sun. 

XIV. 

Mark  the  result.     Unnaturally  debarred 
AH  nature's  fresh  and  innocent  delights, 
While  yet  each  germing  energy  strives  hard, 
And  pristine  good  with  pristine  evil  fights; 
When  every  passing  dream  the  heart  excites, 
And  makes  even  guarded  virtue  insecure; 
Untaught,  unchecked,  they  yield  as  vice  invites; 
With  all  around  them  cramped,  confined,  impure, 
Fast  spreads  the  moral  plague  which  nothing  new  shall 
cure. 


154  A   VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

XV. 

Yes,  this  reproach  is  added;  (infamous 
In  realms  which  own  a  Christian  monarch's  swayf) 
Not  suffering  only  is  their  portion,  thus 
Compelled  to  toil  their  youthful  lives  away: 
Excessive  labor  works  the  Soul's  decay — 
Quenches  the  intellectual  light  within — 
Crushes  with  iron  weight  the  mind's  free  play — 
Steals  from  us  leisure  purer  thoughts  to  win — 
And  leaves  us  sunk  and  lost  in  dull  and  native  sin. 

XVI. 

Yet  in  the  British  Senate  men  rise  up 
(The  freeborn  and  the  fathers  of  our  land?) 
And  while  these  drink  the  dregs  of  Sorrow's  cup, 
Deny  the  sufferings  of  the  pining  band. 
With  nice-drawn  calculations  at  command, 
They  prove — rebut — explain — and  reason  long; 
Proud  of  each  shallow  argument  they  stand, 
And  prostitute  their  utmost  powers  of  tongue 
Feebly  to  justify  this  great  and  glaring  wrong. 

XVII. 

So  rose,  with  such  a  plausible  defence 
Of  the  unalienable  right  of  Gain, 
Those  who  against  Truth's  brightest  eloquence 
Upheld  the  cause  of  torture  and  of  pain: 
And  fear  of  Property's  Decrease  made  vain, 
For  years,  the  hope  of  Christian  Charity 
To  lift  the  curse  from  Slavery's  dark  domain, 
And  send  across  the  wide  Atlantic  sea 
The  watchword  of  brave  men — the  thrilling  shout,   "  Be 
Free!" 


A   VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  155 

XVIII. 

What  is  to  be  a  slave?     Is't  not  to  spend 
A  life  bowed  down  beneath  a  grinding  ill  ? — 
To  labor  on  to  serve  another's  end, — 
To  give  up  leisure,  health,  and  strength,  and  skill — 
And  give  up  each  of  these  against  your  will? 
Hark  to  the  angry  answer: — V  Theirs  is  not 
A  life  of  slavery;  if  they  labor, — still 
We  pay  their  toil.     Free  service  is  their  lot ; 
And  what  their  labor  yields,  by  us  is  fairly  got." 

XIX. 

Oh,  Men!  profane  not  Freedom!     Are  they  free 
Who  toil  until  the  body's  strength  gives  way? 
Who  may  not  set  a  term  for  Liberty, 
Who  have  no  time  for  food,  or  rest,  or  play, 
But  struggle  through  the  long,  unwelcome  day 
Without  the  leisure  to  be  good  or  glad? 
Such  is  their  service — call  it  what  you  may. 
Poor  little  creatures,  overtasked  and  sad, 
Your  Slavery  hath  no  name, — yet  is  its  Curse  as  bad! 

XX. 

Again  an  answer.     "  'Tis  their  parents'  choice. 
By  some  employ  the  poor  man's  child  must  earn 
Its  daily  bread;  and  infants  have  no  voice 
In  what  the  allotted  task  shall  be:  they  learn 
What  answers  best,  or  suits  the  parents'  turn." 
Mournful  reply!     Do  not  your  hearts  inquire 
Who  tempts  the  parents'  penury?     They  yearn 
Toward  their  offspring  with  a  strong  desire, 
But  those  who  starve  will  sell,  even  what  they  most  re- 
quire. 


156  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 


XXI. 

We  grant  their  class  must  labor — young  and  old; 
We  grant  the  child  the  needy  parents'  tool: 
But  still  our  hearts  a  better  plan  behold; 
No  bright  Utopia  of  some  dreaming  fool, 
But  rationally  just,  and  good  by  rule. 
Not  against  Toil,  but  Toil's  Excess  we  pray, 
(Else  were  we  nursed  in  Folly's  simplest  school) 
That  so  our  country's  hardy  children  may 
Learn  not  to  loathe,  but  bless,  the  well  apportioned  day, 

XXII. 

One  more  reply !     The  last  reply — the  great 
Answer  to  all  that  sense  or  feeling  shows, 
To  which  all  others  are  subordinate: — 
11  The  Masters  of  the  Factories  must  lose 
By  the  abridgment  of  these  infant  woes. 
Show  us  the  remedy  which  shall  combine 
Our  equal  gain  with  their  increased  repose — 
Which  shall  not  make  our  trading  class  repine, 
But  to  the  proffered  boon  its  strong  effects  confine." 

XXIII. 

Oh!  shall  it  then  be  said  that  Tyrant  acts 
Are  those  which  cause  our  country's  looms  to  thrive  ? 
That  Merchant  England's  prosperous  trade  exacts 
This  bitter  sacrifice,  e'er  she  derive 
That  profit  due,  for  which  the  feeble  strive  ? 
Is  her  commercial  avarice  so  keen, 
That  in  her  busy,  multitudinous  hive 
Hundreds  must  die  like  insects,  scarcely  seen, 
While  the   thick-thronged   survivors   work   where  they 
have  been? 


A   VOICE    FROM   THE    FACTORIES.  157 

XXIV. 

Forbid  it,  Spirit  of  the  glorious  Past, 
Which  gained  our  Isle  the  surname  of  'The  Free,' 
And  made  our  shores  a  refuge  at  the  last 
To  all  who  would  not  bend  the  servile  knee, 
The  vainly-vanquished  sons  of  Liberty! 
Here  came  the  injured,  the  opprest, 
Compelled  from  the  Oppressor's  face  to  flee — 
And  found  a  home  of  shelter  and  of  rest 
In  the  warm,  generous  heart   that    beat   in   England's 
breast. 

XXV. 

Here  came  the    Slave,   who  straightway  burst  his 

chain, 
And  knew  that  none  could  ever  bind  him  more ; 
Here  came  the  melancholy  sons  of  Spain; 
And  here,  more  buoyant,  Gaul's  illustrious  poor 
Waited  the  same  bright  day  that  shone  before. 
Here  rests  the  Enthusiast  Pole !  and  views  afar 
With  dreaming  hope,  from  this  protecting  shore, 
The  trembling  rays  of  Liberty's  pale  star 
Shine  forth  in  vain  to  light  the  too-unequal  war! 

XXVI. 

And  shall  Reproach  cling  darkly  to  the  name 
Which  every  memory  so  much  endears? 
Shall  we,  too,  tyrannise, — and  tardy  Fame 
Revoke  the  glory  of  our  former  years, 
And  stain  Britannia's  flag  with  children's  tears? 
So  shall  the  mercy  of  the  English  throne 
Become  a  by-word  in  the  Nations'  ears, 
As  one  who  pitying  heard  the  stranger's  groan, 
But  to  these  nearer  woes  was  cold  and  deaf  as  stone. 
14 


158  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

XXVII. 

Are  there  not  changes  made  which  grind  the  Poor? 
Are  there  not  losses  every  day  sustained, — 
Deep  grievances,  which  make  the  spirit  sore? 
And  what  the  answer,  when  these  have   complained? 
"  For  crying  evils  there  hath  been  ordained 
The  Remedy  of  Change;  to  obey  its  call 
Some  individual  loss  must  be  disdained, 
And  pass  as  unavoidable  and  small, 
Weighed  with  the  broad  result  of  general  good  to  all." 

XXVIII. 

Oh!  such  an  evil  now  doth  cry  aloud! 
And  Change  should  be  by  generous  hearts  begun, 
Though  slower  gain  attend  the  prosperous  crowd, 
Lessening  the  fortunes  for  their  children  won. 
Why  should  it  grieve  a  father,  that  his  son 
Plain  competence  must  moderately  bless? 
That  he  must  trade,  even  as  his  sire  has  done, 
Not  born  to  independent  idleness, 
Though  honestly  above  all  probable  distress? 

XXIX. 

Rejoice !     Thou  hast  not  left  enough  of  gold 
From  the  lined  heavy  ledger,  to  entice 
His  drunken  hand,  irresolutely  bold, 
To  squander  it  in  haggard  haunts  of  vice: — 
The  hollow  rattling  of  the  uncertain  dice 
Eats  not  the  portion  which  thy  love  bestowed; — 
Unable  to  afford  that  Pleasure's  price, 
Far  off  he  slumbers  in  his  calm  abode, 
And  leaves  the  Idle  Rich  to  follow  Ruin's  road. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  159 


XXX. 

Happy  his  lot!     For  him  there  shall  not  be 
The  cold  temptation  given  by  vacant  time; 
Leaving  his  young  and  uncurbed  spirit  free 
To  wander  thro'  the  feverish  paths  of  crime! 
For  him  the  Sabbath  bell's  returning  chime 
Not  vainly  ushers  in  God's  day  of  rest; 
No  night  of  riot  clouds  the  morning's  prime: 
Alert  and  glad,  not  languid  and  opprest, 
He  wakes,  and  with  calm  soul  is  the  Creator  blest. 

XXXI. 

Ye  save  for  children!     Fathers,  is  there  not 
A  plaintive  magic  in  the  name  of  child, 
Which  makes  you  feel  compassion  for  their  lot 
On  whom  Prosperity  hath  never  smiled? 
When  with  your  own  an  hour  hath  been  beguiled 
(For  whom  you  hoard  the  still  increasing  store), 
Surely,  against  the  face  of  Pity  mild, 
Heart-hardening  Custom  vainly  bars  the  door, 
For  that  less  favored  race — The  Children  of  the  Poor. 


XXXII. 

"The  happy  homes  of  England!" — they  have  been 
A  source  of  triumph,  and  a  theme  for  song; 
And  surely  if  there  be  a  hope  serene 
And  beautiful,  which  may  to  Earth  belong, 
'T  is  when  (shut  out  the  world's  associate  throng, 
And  closed  the  busy  day's  fatiguing  hum), 
Still  waited  for  with  expectation  strong, 
Welcomed  with  joy,  and  overjoyed  to  come, 
The  good  man  goes  to  seek  the  twilight  rest  of  home. 


160  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

XXXIII. 

There  sits  his  gentle  Wife,  who  with  him  knelt 
Long  years  ago  at  God's  pure  altar-place; 
Still  beautiful, — though  all  that  she  hath  felt 
Hath  calmed  the  glory  of  her  radiant  face, 
And  given  her  brow  a  holier,  softer  grace. 
Mother  of  Souls  Immortal,  she  doth  feel 
A  glow  from  Heaven  her  earthly  love  replace; 
Prayer  to  her  lip  more  often  now  doth  steal, 
And  meditative  hope  her  serious  eyes  reveal. 

XXXIV. 

Fondly  familiar  is  the  look  she  gives 
As  he  returns,  who  forth  so  lately  went, — 
For  they  together  pass  their  happy  lives; 
And  many  a  tranquil  evening  have  they  spent 
Since,  blushing,  ignorantly  innocent, 
She  vowed,  with  downcast  eyes  and  changeful  hue, 
To  love  Him  only.     Love  fulfilled,  hath  lent 
Its  deep  repose;  and  when  he  meets  her  view 
Her  soft  look  only  says, — "  I  trust — and  I  am  true." 

XXXV. 

Scattered  like  flowers,  the  rosy  children  play — 
Or  round  her  chair  a  busy  crowd  they  press; 
But,  at  the  Father's  coming,  start  away, 
With  playful  struggle  for  his  loved  caress, 
And  jealous  of  the  one  he  first  may  bless. 
To  each,  a  welcoming  word  is  fondly  said; 
He  bends  and  kisses  some;  lifts  up  the  less; 
Admires  the  little  cheek,  so  round  and  red, 
Or   smooths   with   tender  hand  the   curled  and  shining 
head. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  161 

XXXVI. 

Oh!  let  us  pause,  and  gaze  upon  them  now. 
Is  there  not  one — beloved  and  lovely  boy! 
With  Mirth's  bright  seal  upon  his  open  brow, 
And  sweet,  fond  eyes,  brimful  of  love  and  joy? 
He,  whom  no  measure  of  delight  can  cloy, 
The  daring  and  the  darling  of  tho  set; 
He  who,  though  pleased  with  every  passing  toy, 
Thoughtless  and  buoyant  to  excess,  could  yet 
Never  a  gentle  word  or  kindly  deed  forget? 

XXXVIL 

And  one,  more  fragile  than  the  rest, — for  whom 
As  for  the  weak  bird  in  a  crowded  nest — 
Are  needed  all  the  fostering  care  of  home, 
And  the  soft  comfort  of  the  brooding  breast: 
One,  who  hath  oil  the  couch  of  sickness  prest! 
On  whom  the  Mother  looks,  as  it  goes  by, 
With  tenderness  intense,  and  fear  supprest, 
While  the  soft  patience  of  her  anxious  eye 
Blends  with   "God's  will  be  done," — "God  grant  thou 
may'st  not  die!" 

XXXYIII. 

And  is  there  not  the  elder  of  the  band  ? 
She  with  the  gentle  smile  and  smooth,  bright  hair, 
Waiting,  some  paces  back, — content  to  stand 
Till  these  of  Love's  caresses  have  their  share; 
Knowing  how  soon  his  fond  paternal  care 
Shall  seek  his  violet  in  her  shady  nook, — 
Patient  she  stands — demure,  and  brightly  fair — 
Copying  the  meekness  of  her  Mother's  look, 
And  clasping  in  her  hand  the  favorite  story-book. 
14* 


162  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

XXXIX. 

Wake,  dreamer! — Choose; — to  labor  Life  away, 
Which  of  these  little  precious  ones  shall  go 
(Debarred  of  summer-light  and  cheerful  play) 
To  that  receptacle  for  dreary  woe, 
The  Factory  Mill  ? — Shall  He,  in  whom  the  glow 
Of  Life   shines  bright,   whose  free  limbs'  vigorous 

tread 
Warns  us  how  much  of  beauty  that  we  know 
Would  fade,  when  he  became  dispirited, 
And  pined  with  sickened  heart,  and  bowed  his  fainting 

head  ? 

XL. 

Or  shall  the  little  quiet  one,  whose  voice 
So  rarely  mingles  in  their  sounds  of  glee, 
Whose  life  can  bid  no  living  thing  rejoice, 
But  rather  is  a  long  anxiety; — 
Shall  he  go  forth  to  toil  ?  and  keep  the  free 
Frank  boy,  whose  merry  shouts  and  restless  grace 
Would  leave  all  eyes  that  used  his  face  to  see, 
Wistfully  gazing  towards  that  vacant  space 
Which  makes  their  fireside  seem  a  lone  and  dreary  place? 

XLI. 

Or,  sparing  these,  send  Her  whose  simplest  words 
Have  power  to  charm — whose  warbled,  childish  song, 
Fluent  and  clear,  and  bird-like,  strikes  the  chords 
Of  sympathy  among  the  listening  throng, — 
Whose  spirits  light,  and  steps  that  dance  along, 
Instinctive  modesty  and  grace  restrain: 
The  fair  young  innocent  who  knows  no  wrong, — 
Whose  slender  wrists  scarce  hold  the  silken  skein 
Which  the  glad  Mother  winds;  shall  She  endure  this  pain? 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  163 

XLII. 

Away!  The  thought — the  thought  alone  brings  tears! 

They  labor — they,  the  darlings  of  our  lives! 

The  flowers  and  sunbeams  of  our  fleeting  years; 

From  whom  alone  our  happiness  derives 

A  lasting  strength,  which  every  shock  survives; 

The   green  young  trees   beneath    whose    arching 

boughs 
(When  failing  Energy  no  longer  strives,) 
Our  wearied  age  shall  find  a  cool  repose; — 
They  toil  in  torture! — No — the  painful  picture  close. 

XLIII. 

Ye  shudder, — nor  behold  the  vision  more! 
Oh,  Fathers!  is  there  then  one  law  for  these, 
And  one  for  the  pale  children  of  the  Poor, — 
That  to  their  agony  your  hearts  can  freeze; 
Deny  their  pain,  their  toil,  their  slow  disease; 
And  deem  with  false  complaining  they  encroach 
Upon  your  time  and  thought?     Is  yours  the  Ease 
Which  misery  vainly  struggles  to  approach, 
Whirling  unthinking  by,  in  Luxury's  gilded  coach? 

XLIV. 

Examine  and  decide.     Watch  through  his  day 
One  of  these  little  ones.     The  sun  hath  shone 
An  hour,  and  by  the  ruddy  morning's  ray, 
The  last  and  least,  he  saunters  on  alone. 
See  where,  still  pausing  on  the  threshold  stone, 
He  stands,  as  loth  to  lose  the  bracing  wind; 
With  wistful  wandering  glances  backward  thrown 
On  all  the  light  and  glory  left  behind, 
And  sighs  to  think  that  He  must  darkly  be  confined  ! 


164  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

XLV. 

Enter  with  him.     The  stranger  who  surveys 

The  little  natives  of  that  dreary  place 

(Where  squalid  suffering  meets  his  shrinking  gaze,) 

Used  to  the  glory  of  a  young  child's  face, 

Its  changeful  light,  its  colored  sparkling  grace, 

(Gleams   of  Heaven's   sunshine  on  our   shadowed 

earth  !) 
Starts  at  each  visage  wan,  and  bold,  and  base, 
Whose  smiles  have  neither  innocence  nor  mirth, — 
And  comprehends  the  Sin  original  from  birth. 

XLVI. 

There  the  pale  Orphan,  whose  unequal  strength 
Loathes  the  incessant  toil  it  must  pursue, 
Pines  for  the  cool  sweet  evening's  twilight  length, 
The  sunny  play -hour,  and  the  morning's  dew  : 
Worn  with  its  cheerless  life's  monotonous  hue, 
Bowed  down,  and  faint,  and  stupified  it  stands; 
Each  half-seen  object  reeling  in  its  view — 
While  its  hot,  trembling,  languid  little  hands 
Mechanically  heed  the  Task-master's  commands. 

XL  VII. 

There,  sounds  of  wailing  grief  and  painful  blows 
Offend  the  ear,  and  startle  it  from  rest; 
(While  the  lungs  gasp  what  air  the  place  bestows,) 
Or  misery's  joyless  vice,  the  ribald  jest, 
Breaks  the  sick  silence  :  staring  at  the  guest 
Who  comes  to  view  their  labor,  they  beguile 
The  unwatched  moment;  whispers  half  supprest 
And  mutterings  low  their  faded  lips  defile, — 
While  gleams  from  face  to  face  a  strange  and  sullen  smile. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  165 


XLVIII. 

These  then  are  his  Companions  :  he,  too  young 
To  share  their  base  and  saddening  merriment, 
Sits  by  :  his  little  head  in  silence  hung; 
His  limbs  cramped  up;  his  body  weakly  bent; 
Toiling  obedient,  till  long  hours  so  spent 
Produce  Exhaustion's  slumber,  dull  and  deep. 
The  Watcher's  stroke, — bold — sudden — violent, — 
Urges  him  from  that  lethargy  of  sleep, 
And  bids  him  wake  to  Life, — to  labor  and  to  weep  ! 

XLIX. 

But  the  day  hath  its  End.     Forth  then  he  hies 
With  jaded,  faltering  step,  and  brow  of  pain; 
Creeps  to  that  shed, — his  Home, — where  happy  lies 
The  sleeping  babe  that  cannot  toil  for  Gain; 
Where  his  remorseful  Mother  tempts  in  vain 
With  the  best  portion  of  their  frugal  fare  : 
Too  sick  to  eat — too  weary  to  complain — 
He  turns  him  idly  from  the  untasted  share, 
Slumbering  sinks  down  unfed,  and  mocks  her  useless  care. 

L. 

Weeping  she  lifts,  and  lays  his  heavy  head 
(With  all  a  woman's  grieving  tenderness) 
On  the  hard  surface  of  his  narrow  bed; 
Bends  down  to  give  a  sad  unfelt  caress, 
And  turns  away ; — willing  her  God  to  bless, 
That,  weary  as  he  is,  he  need  not  fight 
Against  that  long-enduring  bitterness, 
The  Voluntary  Labor  of  the  Night, 
But  sweetly  slumber  on  till  day's  returning  light. 


166  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES. 

LI. 

Vain  hope  !  Alas  !  unable  to  forget 
The  anxious  task's  long,  heavy  agonies, 
In  broken  sleep  the  victim  labors  yet  ! 
Waiting  the  boding  stroke  that  bids  him  rise, 
He  marks  in  restless  fear  each  hour  that  flies — 
Anticipates  the  unwelcome  morning  prime — 
And  murmuring  feebly,  with  unwakened  eyes, 
"  Mother  !  Oh  Mother  !  is  it  yet  the  Time?  " 
Starts  at  the  moon's  pale  ray — or  clock's  far  distant  chime. 

LII. 

Such  is  his  day  and  night  !     Now  then  return 
Where  your  Own  slumber  in  protected  ease; 
They  whom  no  blast  may  pierce,  no  sun  may  burn; 
The  lovely,  on  whose  cheeks  the  wandering  breeze 
Hath  left  the  rose's  hue.     Ah  !  not  like  these 
Does  the  pale  infant-laborer  ask  to  be  : 
He  craves  no  tempting  food — no  toys  to  please — 
Not  Idleness,  but  less  of  agony; 
Not  Wealth, — but  comfort,  rest,  Contented  Poverty. 


LIII. 

There  is,  among  all  men,  in  every  clime, 
A  difference  instinctive  and  unschooled  : 
God  made  the  Mind  unequal.     From  all  time 
By  fierceness  conquered,  or  by  cunning  fooled, 
The  World  hath  had  its  Rulers  and  its  Ruled  : — 
Yea — uncompelled — men  abdicate  free  choice, 
Fear  their  own  rashness,  and,  by  thinking  cooled, 
Follow  the  counsel  of  some  trusted  voice; — 
A  self-elected  sway,  wherein  their  souls  rejoice. 


A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES.  167 

LIV. 

Thus,  for  the  most  part,  willing  to  obey, 
Men  rarely  set  Authority  at  naught  : 
Albeit  a  weaker  or  a  worse  than  they 
May  hold  the  rule  with  such  importance  fraught; 
And  thus  the  peasant,  from  his  cradle  taught 
That  some  must  own,  while  some  must  till  the  land, 
Rebels  not — murmurs  not — even  in  his  thought. 
Born  to  his  lot,  he  bows  to  high  command, 
And  guides  the  furrowing  plough  with  a  contented  hand. 

LV. 

But,  if  the  weight  which  habit  renders  light 
Is  made  to  gall  the  Serf  who  bends  below — 
The  dog  that  watched  and  fawned,  prepares  to  bite  ! 
Too  rashly  strained,  the  cord  snaps  from  the  bow — 
Too  tightly  curbed,  the  steeds  their  riders  throw — 
And  so,  (at  first  contented  his  fair  state 
Of  customary  servitude  to  know,) 
Too  harshly  ruled,  the  poor  man  learns  to  hate 
And  curse  the  oppressive  law  that  bids  him   serve  the 
Great. 

LVI. 

Then  first  he  asks  his  gloomy  soul  the  Cause 
Of  his  discomfort;  suddenly  compares — 
Reflects — and  with  an  angry  spirit  draws 
The  envious  line  between  his  lot  and  theirs, 
Questioning  the  Justice  of  the  unequal  shares. 
And  from  the  gathering  of  this  discontent, 
Where  there  is  strength,  Revolt  his  standard  rears; 
Where  there  is  weakness,  evermore  finds  vent 
The  sharp  annoying  cry  of  sorrowful  complaint. 


168  A    VOICE    FROM    THE    FACTORIES'. 

LVII. 

Therefore  should  Mercy,  gentle  and  serene, 
Sit  by  the  Ruler's  side,  and  share  his  Throne  : — 
Watch  with  unerring  eye  the  passing  scene, 
And  bend  her  ear  to  mark  the  feeblest  groan; 
Lest  due  Authority  be  overthrown, 
And  they  that  ruled  perceive  (too  late  confest  !) 
Permitted  Power  might  still  have  been  their  own, 
Had  they  but  watched  that  none  should  be  opprest — 
No  just  complaint  despised — no  Wrong  left  unredressed. 

LVIII. 

Nor  should  we,  Christians  in  a  Christian  land, 
Forget  who  smiled  on  helpless  infancy, 
And  blest  them  with  divinely  gentle  hand. 
"  Suffer  that  little  children  come  to  me  :  " 
Such  were  His  words  to  whom  we  bow  the  knee  ! 
These  to  our  care  the  Saviour  did  commend; 
And  shall  we  His  bequest  treat  carelessly, 
Who  yet  our  full  protection  would  extend 
To  the  lone  Orphan  child  left  by  an  Earthly  Friend? 

LIX. 

No  !  rather  what  the  Inspired  Law  imparts 
To  guide  our  ways,  and  make  our  path  more  sure ; 
Blending  with  Pity  (native  to  our  hearts,) 
Let  us  to  these,  who  patiently  endure 
Neglect,  and  penury,  and  toil,  secure 
The  innocent  hopes  that  to  their  age  belong; 
So,  honoring  Him,  the  Merciful  and  Pure, 
Who  watches  when  the  Oppressor's  arm  grows  strong, 
And  helpeth  them  to  right — the  Weak — who  suffer  wrong ! 

Anonymous. 


Ymontn  loans  ^|tCulation  0.*^  4  „„s  ,  I10r 
Rene^3noreonarf^  ws 


1         ""        ~r.i       \-40m- 


'75 


General  UbrarY.a 


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